The First Contact
by A Lost Cookie
Summary: When an adventurer and soldier comes from a place far, far away from Roseville High, and brings with him both his allies and enemies, how will Mike, Lucy, Paulo and the rest of the gang deal with the repercussions? Rated M for violence and possible sexual content in later chapters.
1. Chapter 0: Disclaimers

The First Contact: Disclaimer

Right, so, this will be my first story uploaded to Fanfiction, so I apologize ahead of time if it starts out choppy, or if the installments start out being short. Due to my own personal preferences when writing stories, this story will be a primarily science-fiction story. There will be space travel, there will be people "firin' their lazors," and there will be a lot of technology that honestly just came from my head. If you don't like the idea of an advanced civilization discovering the planet and making contact, and a very, very harsh deviation from the source's story, then please leave now. I won't be offended. I promise.

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….Did they leave? Oh, my god, they did. They're horrible! How could they not give me a chance?! ;_;

But, you stayed, didn't you? Then I guess I'm writing this for you, huh? I can do that. I'd be glad to write for you, since you showed your faith that I could entertain you. So, I guess I should get on to the real credits, then, huh? Skip to the dotted line below to skip a bunch of disclaimers.

First of all, the credits will be updated as often as I remember, but for now, I can promise that all of the characters from the planet are the brainchildren of miss Veronica Vera, Creator of the webcomic Bittersweet Candy Bowl. Any character from the space-faring race is likely to be a character of my own, though I will endeavor to give credit to other people's characters as I add them in, if any are added.

My story takes place in a slightly different 'universe' than that of Miss Vera's BCB, though the differences can be monumental. Due to BCB still being underway as of the time of this story's creation, I thought that, instead of trying to incorporate her updates into every story, and risk parts of my story clashing with hers, I would give the two stories some space from each-other.

While I take no credit for BCB's story up until the time of my story's creation, I do take credit for anything that happens story-wise within this story. BCB is its own, and I encourage anyone interested in this story to give BCB a good, long look, if for no other reason than to see the story that eventually led me to create this story.

I reiterate, I take no credit for anything other than the happenings in this story, and I take no credit for any of the original cast's characters. Seriously. I don't want people hunting for my head, calling for my blood, or firing me into the sun because there was some mix-up in this section. Miss Vera's characters belong to her. My characters belong to me. The Tsibanian Tubor Snake's characters belong to the Tsibanian Tubor Snake.

Okay?

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Okay.

-Dotted line, yo.-

TL;DR: My stuff is mine, Miss Vera's stuff is her's, and a snake's stuff is the snake's

My story takes place at the end of BCB's chapter Curtain Call, starting literally at the same time as Lucy, Mike and the others took their bows.

One last thing: I'm not certain how often I'll update this story. There could be a flurry of updates, followed by silence for weeks, or I could keep on a regular schedule. I have no idea. Please hang with me, because I would love to share this story with you. If nothing else, get on BCB's forums and send me a message. Just say, "Hey, Lost_Cookie! UPDATE YOUR STORY, MAN! C'MON D"

Okay, so, shall we get on with the story? Yes! Or... Well, maybe. Is there an option for 'next page' down there? If not, come back soon. If so, then hit it! We got stuff to read (or write)!

P.S. The characters that I am utilizing in this story are original characters that have been tweaked slightly to fit in with the BCB Universe. They will more than likely show up in other stories that I write, and are the intellectual property of moi. Like Vageta said, I'm just... Saiyan. OH GOD NO DON'T HURT M


	2. Chapter 1: Introductions

Silence. That was what greeted the feline's ears as he slowly regained consciousness. Complete, overwhelming silence. Silence that grated on him like no sound ever could. Silence that made his heart skip a beat and his stomach drop out. 'It shouldn't be so quiet,' he thought, fighting down panic. His eyes slowly opened, and the small, HUD-style display on his helmet blinked on as his helmet detected that his eyes had opened. Or... Eye. His left eye felt perfectly fine, but his right eye hurt like a sonuvabitch. His memories were sluggish, swirling around him like a mist, but he grasped enough to remember the sudden jolt that had slammed his head forward against someone's helmet, just as he was grabbing his own helmet. 'I probably blacked it,' he thought, his thoughts as wispy as his memories.

His helmet compensated, portraying all the information he needed within his left eye's sight range. There, he thought, finding the atmospheric information projected near the right corner, fed to him by the ship that surrounded him and the suit he wore. He still had atmosphere, but no power. How did he know he had no power? Well, the -37 degree temperature was an indicator. If his suit weren't designed for extended periods of time in such situations, he'd probably have frozen long ago.

He leaned forward with a soft groan and reached out, wincing at a pain in his right side. More damage? Grand. Just freaking magnificent. His fingers flicked instinctively over the control toggles, flipping them all off. Then he began toggling them on, one at a time. Almost as soon as he had flicked the first switch, he heard the soft hum of the reactor as it came online. Or, perhaps 'heard' was the wrong word. He felt it, a slight vibration that flowed through the ship around him, a nearly nonexistant feeling or sound that told him that he was going to live.

But the explosion that he'd escaped hadn't been kind to the ship he was aboard. As systems came online, damage reports began flooding in. FTL drive offline, sub-light drives at sixty-three percent, multiple hull breaches that had been sealed by the self-sealing layer underneath the outer hull, shields that would barely rate atmospheric entry, and no artificial gravity. But there were two bits of good news that managed to make him smile, despite the pain it caused. One was that the emergency beacon hadn't been damaged, and would begin broadcasting on MDB channels as soon as he engaged it.

The other bit of good news was that there was a habitable planet not a day away at his current maximum acceleration. Punching in a course took five minutes. Then he relaxed in the straps of the flight couch's 0g straps and let the ship fly him to relative safety.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"So, tell me again why we're here?" Lucy asked, her tail flicking behind her as she followed Paulo through the forest, staring at his back as he led her excitedly along. Snow dotted his fur and hair, and she almost smiled a little to herself, imagining reaching forward to brush it away. "More importantly, why are we coming out here before school instead of after?

Paulo turned briefly to flash a confident grin at her, then focused his attention ahead again. "Because it couldn't wait. You remember the other night, when the news started talking about an object burning up in the atmosphere? Something about a large asteroid that had been caught by the Earth's gravity?"

"Yeah..." She sighed softly. The whole shooting star thing had been really big news, mostly because of how suddenly it had showed up and how fast it had moved. It had been pure, blind luck that someone had seen it before it had actually reached Earth, and it had scared a lot of people. A lot of people had asked, if something that big can get within a day of us without us noticing, why can't something bigger?

"Well, I was outside watching when it got here. And the news lied. It didn't burn up in the atmosphere. It made it to the ground. And it wasn't an asteroid, it was a ship." Paulo turned and grinned at her, now walking backwards as he conveyed this information. When Lucy's eyebrows rose, his grin widened. "Exactly! And since I didn't hear an explosion, I'm guessing it didn't crash, which means when I lost sight of it, it was landing. Landing **here**!"

Lucy gave another soft sigh and shrugged, motioning for him to lead on. Maybe he was just trying to get her to cheer up by telling her a story like that. She knew quite well that she hadn't been a ray of sunshine lately, and it wouldn't be Paulo's first attempt at cheering her up. Maybe she should act interested, play along and let him cheer her up just a bit. Even if only for a few minutes, she could pretend that something big had happened, something that wasn't her screwing up her chances with Mike at every step, that wasn't her acting like a parasite by-

Her thought processes were abruptly derailed as she ran into Paulo's back, staggering backwards before regaining her balance, shaking her head. "You could have warned me you were stopping," she said, glaring at the back of his head. Then she noticed what had made him stop, and her complaint dried up.

Ahead of them, an entire section of the forest was flattened, trees knocked over in one long line from their right to their left. Lucy blinked, her earlier thoughts and dark mood fading before the sight. Nothing natural could have done this, which only left unnatural, artificial. "So..." Paulo said, looking back at her. "Awesome?"

Lucy nodded slightly, her eyes on the trees. "It's... Big." Then she blinked, her eyes widening. "We're going to be late!"

Paulo blinked, too, then groaned. "We'll check it out after school," He said, giving the clearing one last look before turning and taking off. "C'mon, let's go!"

Fifteen minutes later, Paulo and Lucy staggered into the classroom, panting from their long run, just as the bell rang. Both immediately took their seats, pointedly ignoring the odd looks from the rest of the class. The teacher looked up at the two of them, then smiled a bit. "I have an announcement to make," She said as she stood, leaning one hand against her desk, the other on her hip. "A new student is joining the class. Everyone, please welcome Teviir." As the name was given, the door opened and a cat stepped in.

Lucy blinked at the sight of him. He looked fit, though not in that ridiculous way that some guys did in an attempt to impress girls. He was tall, maybe six foot one, and had pitch black fur from ear-tip to tail, and even had a black backpack over his shoulder. He approached the teacher, smiling an odd little smile as he nodded to her. Then he turned in place, waving almost shyly at the class. There was a collective intake of breath when the class saw his face; it looked like he'd gotten into a pretty bad fight, because his right eye was bruised and swollen, and he had bandages wrapping his ribs. Even with all of that damage, muscle and height, he managed to look meek and docile, like he wasn't a threat. Lucy narrowed her eyes, wondering when the other shoe would drop.

"Teviir, you can sit in the back. I'm afraid it's the only open seat."

The new kid smiled at her and nodded, his ear flicking. "That's perfect, thank you." He had an odd accent, but Lucy couldn't quite pin down why it sounded odd. She watched as he walked down the aisle between desks, back to the desk that he had been assigned. Half the eyes in the class followed him, and stayed on him until the teacher said, "Alright, now, if you would take out your books, we'll be looking at..."

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Lunch couldn't come fast enough, and when the bell rang, half of the students in the class surrounded Teviir, asking him if he would sit with them, and giving all sorts of reasons why he should. The feline shrank down in his seat, looking helplessly around at the different students, smiling a little and trying his best to politely decline their insistent requests. It wasn't until Paulo pushed some kids aside and stepped up that he seemed interested in the offer. "Hey, Teviir, isn't it?" Paulo grinned, leaning lightly against the desk. "I know you're new around here, so I wanted to offer to let you sit at our table today. I have some juicy info on that meteor that reached the Earth yesterday. Interested?"

Teviir's ears perked up, and he settled his eyes on Paulo. Paulo blinked, his grin faltering slightly; for just a moment, the black cat's bright blue eyes had... Changed. They had hardened, just for a second. Then it was gone, and Teviir was meek and unassuming again. "Really? There's something about it that the news hasn't told yet?"

Paulo nodded, his grin returning full-force. He would not lose his momentum to some trick of the light! "Yeah, and trust me when I say you won't believe it. So? You interested?"

"Yeah," Teviir said, pushing himself to his feet and giving a smile in return. "Yeah, I'm interested."

/\Author's note: The length of this first post is not indicative of the average length I will be posting... I hope :\ However, I still need to get into the mindsets I'm creating for these characters, so... Apologies.


	3. Chapter 2: Interest

It wasn't everyday that someone like Teviir found himself stranded with no way back to the rest of his people, forced to wait for the days, weeks or possibly months that it took his MDB transmissions to reach those that could save him. Despite his actions in public so far, he was actually rather self-assured and confident, both of which stemmed from his knowledge of how things worked. According to the doctors back with his people, he was incredibly unique. It wasn't in his appearance, which was rather normal for his planet, which had turned to genetic manipulation to make 'designer children.' This unique trait had resulted in a substantially raised intellect, strengthened senses, and a reaction time that bordered on precognition.

None of that really mattered to him. He didn't think of himself as better than others, simply different. And he'd have paid every penny he had ever made and given up his career to be normal. He hated the lofty position his 'trait' had forced him into. He loved his career, and enjoyed what he did, but he hated the looks that he got, the pedestal his very existence put him on.

And now, he was on an incredibly underdeveloped planet, just rescued from the march of half-correct facts and flawed theories by the ring of a bell that seemed to signify a break for lunch.

He was actually a bit surprised that his translation implant had worked through their language so easily. There was a lot of nuances that could take years to perfect normally, but the underlying principles of their language was actually quite simple. Once he'd tuned the filters in the program correctly, he was hearing everything in his language, and as he went to speak, his thoughts were in his native language. But the implant intercepted these signals, altering them as they approached their destination so that, instead of speaking in his own language, he was speaking in their own. It was actually quite a weird sensation, how his mouth didn't move to say the words he was used to. It was almost like being a puppet to someone else's will, but with that will being his own.

He surfaced from his introversion just as he sat down at the table this group had claimed, blinking slowly. He was positioned between the orange-ish feline that had invited him along to eat with them and a gray-furred feline with a blue scarf wrapped around his neck. He cocked a brow at that particular fashion idea, then shrugged and glanced at his food. He overheard the orange cat saying something about the school's barbeque sandwiches being okay, and with a shrug, took a bite.

"Alright, so, guys, you all remember the meteor thing that was on the news a few days ago, right?" The orange cat asked, looking around the table. Teviir followed his gaze, wondering at the group.

It was mostly felines, with only two dogs in evidence. One was a guy that looked pretty ditzy. He reminded him of the 'class clown' from his past. The other was a female, and something told him that most of the guys at the school had been with her at some point.

Then there were the cats. Aside from the scarf-wearing cat and the orange one, there was a girl with long, pure white fur and blue eyes. Cute, but she seemed... Hurt. Like a turtle that had withdrawn into her shell to protect herself. Next on the line of females was a kind-looking girl, her fur a really, really light shade of brown, her eyes dark brown, with what looked like a pearl necklace around her neck. This one was a pleaser, through and through. She seemed like she'd do anything to cheer someone up.

Then came a pretty one with violet fur and light brown eyes. She caught Teviir's glance, smiled, and gave a nod, which Teviir returned with a smile of his own. Nice girl, self-confident, but she seemed just a touch uncomfortable. Perhaps it was the girl that sat opposite her?

That one almost looked like her self-confidence had been eaten at some point in the past, and she was only just earning it back. Her fur was more of a tan color, with piercings in her tail and a collar about her neck with a star hanging from it. She'd dyed her bangs pink at some point, and with her short hair, he had to admit it looked good on her.

His observation was interrupted by the gray cat with the scarf. "So, tell us already, Paulo. It's not like we can just read your mind."

"Wouldn't expect ya to," the orange cat, Paulo, said with a laugh. "Alright, so, get this, I went out the night it was supposed to hit the atmosphere, right? And I see it, way the heck up there, this little ball of fire just streaking through the sky. I stared at it for a good minute before I realized it wasn't breaking up."

"It was an alien!" The ditzy-looking dog said, jumping up and wiggling his arms. "It had eight arms and thirteen legs and breathed water!"

'So, so wrong,' Teviir thought, wiping away his pained expression and covering it with a look of curiosity.

"Yeah, sure, David. Whatever you say." That was the female dog, laughing behind a hand.

"Except, he's not far off," Paulo said. "The fireball changed direction at least twice, like it was looking for something. Then it dropped, lower and lower... And then the fire went out. Then, all I saw was this weird glow from the back of whatever it was as it dropped towards the forest that the park butts up against. Me and Lucy," He motioned towards the white cat, "went to check out the woods this morning, and we found this long stretch of trees that had just been knocked over or broken in half. Kind of like something crashed there."

The table was silent for several moments, and then the cat with the pearl necklace said, "Are you saying it was some kind of space ship?"

Teviir blinked slowly, and wondered, briefly, when his civilization had made a differentiation between 'ship' and 'shuttle.' For his people, calling a shuttle a 'ship' was like calling a rowboat a cruise liner. But he really couldn't blame them. To them, anything that could fly in space was a space ship.

"That's exactly what I'm saying, Daisy." Paulo leaned back, grinning, like he'd just proven something incredibly important. Who knew, maybe this was one of their first contacts?

"That's crazy, even for you," The cat with the scarf rolled emerald-green eyes, sighing and shaking his head.

"What's crazy?" The voice came from behind Teviir, a rather youthful one. Or maybe it was just the energy in it, like there was so much the voice's owner was looking forward to. With a sigh, Teviir set his sandwich down and leaned back, tilting his head until he could see the speaker, albeit upside down. And when he saw her, he froze.

"Jaz? What are you doing here?" Paulo asked, confusion thick in his voice.

"My teacher finished his lecture early," The pretty black-and-white feline said, her head tilting, eying Paulo with eyes a shade lighter than scarf-cat's. "What's crazy?"

"He says that a space ship crashed in the forest near the woods the other night." Scarfy shrugged and leaned forward, grabbing his own sandwich and taking a bite.

"It did! I'll even show you where after school!" Paulo glared at Mike. "Face it, you're just jealous, Mike. You wish you had seen the ship crashing!"

"I'm not jealous," Scarfy, sorry, Mike said, giving Paulo a stern look. "I'm wondering why you haven't been carted off."

"I believe him," Teviir said quietly, ducking his head when his comment drew the rest of the table's attention. It was quiet for several seconds, then he grunted and jerked forward as Paulo slapped him on the back.

"I like this guy!" Paulo laughed, giving him another slap on the back. Teviir managed a slight grin, glancing back at the black-and-white cat, Jaz. Perhaps his stay on this planet wouldn't be unbearable, after all.


	4. Chapter 3: Engagement

A month had never seemed like a long time to Teviir while he was in space. Even on the fastest of FTL ships, the journey from place to place could last months, and periods of shore leave were always at least two weeks, to allow a crew to relax after being 'cramped' aboard a ship for several months. The joke on a ship was that months had become the new days, and weeks the new hour. With health care extending lives by almost thirty years, one could almost admit to the truth of that statement. Almost.

It lost its truth during combat. In combat, seconds became hours, days, and hours became months, even years. Time dragged on, and didn't pass without a fair amount of kicking and screaming. For the longest time, Teviir had only faced this eternity from the bridge of a ship, as safe behind meters of armored hull and bulkheads as one can get in space.

Now, he was faced with this unstoppable drag of time without even an armored space suit, left to face the ravages of time on a potentially hostile planet for a week, with no end in sight.

And he was enjoying every last millisecond.

Okay, maybe not so much every millisecond. The time he spend in the school's terribly outdated classrooms was an almost painful affair, and he usually spent this time sketching starscapes on a piece of paper while the teacher spoke, only devoting a small part of his intellect to hearing what the teacher was actually saying. It was, to him, the absolute least attention he could give to a subject without out-right ignoring it, but according to his grades, he wasn't doing half bad. B's in everything save math, which he had a perfect 100% in.

He had even taken to tutoring two or three students in their trouble subjects, everything from math to history. One student, the pink-banged 'senior' by the name of Tessa, had seemed to have grown attached to him, though he thought it was more because he didn't know her past than because she was attracted to him. He'd seen the way a lot of the students had looked at her, and had gone out of his way to treat her as kindly as possible, and she seemed to appreciate it. She'd needed some help, surprisingly enough, in something called 'language arts,' which she'd described as 'a glorified public speaking class.' So, he'd given her a hand, and two ears, while she tried out various speeches.

By and far his favorite time, though, was tutoring Jaz. She actually needed very little help after the first day, and he mostly spent his time thinking up some challenging problems for her to figure out, and then figuring out some problems that she'd made up. They were almost too easy, but he threw several of the questions he was given, so that she would come out with one or two more correct answers than him relatively often. If she noticed his throwing their impromptu games, she didn't say anything.

That wasn't to say that his time was all grins and giggles. After the entire group had seen the lane his shuttle had left in the forest when he'd crashed, they'd been combing the forest for evidence of the ship. He'd had to keep track of where they had been and where they were going, and had moved his shuttle three times to keep it from being discovered. On top of that, David and Paulo had become curious as to where he lived, and had begun trying to follow him home. He'd escaped them twice by his visit with either Jaz or Tess, but today, he didn't have any tutoring planned. And they were there. Following him.

"Y'know, you two are terrible at being inconspicuous," he called over his shoulder as he walked, a slight smile touching his lips when he heard David make some sound, and then the sound of crunching snow. He glanced back, and saw only a mound of snow where he'd walked just a moment earlier. "Not helping!"

Paulo burst from the mound and marched up to walk beside him, fuming. He glared out of the corner of his eye at Teviir, who pretended not to notice and continued to walk down the sidewalk. This was going to be tricky. He couldn't just duck into the forest, or the two of them might get suspicious, and the last thing he needed was for these two in particular to be suspicious of him.

Finally, Paulo relented. "Why is it I've never seen you going to your house? Hell, I haven't even heard of any new families moving in."

Teviir glanced at him from the corner of his eye and shrugged. "Simple. I was in that ship that crash-landed in the forest, and I've infiltrated your group in an endeavor to remain hidden. And after you started searching for my ship, I've used my insider information to move my ship to a place you've already searched so that you wouldn't actually find it, thus hiding my very presence on your planet until the distress beacon I've had active since before I landed summons help from my people, a space-faring race of adventurer/explorers currently at war with another race of war-like conquerors intent on destroying or enslaving all life in the universe."

Paulo stared at him, and when Teviir glanced away, he saw David giving him a stare from his other side. Then both burst into laughter, Paulo slapping his back. "Dude, that's so far out there it's ridiculous. It sounds like the opening part of a bad anime!"

Teviir laughed, though inside he winced. His people's war was nothing more than 'a bad anime' to him, eh? Oh well, thus is the ignorance of a race at peace. "Yeah, sorry. I saw a description for it on the internet yesterday, and thought I'd give it a try."

"Yeah, well, I recommend not watching it. Seems like it'd be horribly cliché. Probably a lot of combat and shooting, and not many cute girls."

You got that right, Teviir thought with a soft sigh. "Well, the truth is, I don't have much in the way of, uh... A home. I kind of drift around, from place to place."

Paulo blinked, his grin stuck in place for several seconds. Then it dropped away, replaced by an embarrassed look. "Well, shit, uh... Sorry. I didn't mean to, you know... Look, if you need a place to stay, I'm sure I can convince my dad to let you stay a while..."

"No! No, it's fine, really. I keep myself clean, I eat plenty at school... I survive, you know? And I survive well enough to be able to go to school and make friends. The fact that I had to tell you about it should be more than enough proof, you know? Just, ah... keep quiet about it? I don't want to be a charity case, you know?"

Paulo nodded, smiling a bit. "Yeah, sure. Just let me know if you need anything, alright? It's not charity if it's what keeps you alive, you know?"

Teviir nodded, smiling a bit. "Yeah, I understand. Thanks. I'll, uh, I'll see you later, alright?" He gave a half-wave and jogged off down the street, angling towards the forest. Way, way too close. At least he'd been right about Paulo. Give him the unbelievable truth, and he'd be more willing to accept an incredibly unlikely lie. As he crunched through the snow, he sighed, wondering if he would, or even should, tell them the truth. Prove to them that he was, indeed, an alien. It seemed unlikely that they would accept him afterward, especially on a planet that had never encountered an alien race before. He could imagine their looks, and as he slowed to a walk, glancing up at the sleek, black-hulled shuttle hidden in a little clearing ahead, he could imagine their rejections.

Especially Jaz's. His mind rolled rolled around her potential words around, one after the other, each one sinking a barb deeper in his chest as he approached the shuttle's hatch, which hissed open when it detected his CT implant.

'You're an alien?! How did I ever trust you?!'

'I'm calling the military, you freak!'

"Huh, so... This explains a lot."

'Freaking alie-' Wait, what?

Teviir spun on his heel, his stomach dropping down to shake hands with someone in Japan. Standing there, leaning against a tree and gazing at his shuttle, was the very person he'd been thinking about. Here. As in, not a figment of his imagination. He even checked to make sure it wasn't a nightmare by sinking his claws into his palm. Nope, pain. Not a nightmare. Definitely real.

"I, I, ahh... I found the alien ship?" It was weak and he knew it. The jig was up, and he knew it. The way she gazed at him, a hint of confusion mixed with a huge amount of amusement and... Wait, amusement? Why in the thirteen Hells of Valkan was she AMUSED?! "You're... Not calling the military, are you?"

"Why?" Jasmine pushed off of the tree and walked over to him, glancing over his shoulder into the ship. "I mean, you're weird sometimes, and you have some really weird ideas sometimes..." She shrugged, looking back at him. "But something tells me you wouldn't hurt an innocent person."

He wasn't sure if that weak feeling in his legs was relief or just sudden, bone-numbing exhaustion. Around her, at least, he no longer needed to pretend. "I, ah... Want some tea?" He motioned towards the shuttle, and she nodded. He stepped to the side and let her pass, then followed her inside, the door closing shut with a soft hiss behind him.

The inside of the shuttle was cramped, but only when one thought that the vessel was designed to hold six people for month-long periods. The ship itself was about eighty feet long, though the crew cabin was only about sixty-five. From wingtip to wingtip, the 'smooth triangle' shape of the ship gave it about a hundred-ten in width, with the crew compartment taking up about twenty feet of that width. The four massive engines in the back took up the final fifteen feet of length and about three-quarters of its width, giving it the enormous thrust-to-weight ratio that was required to send a shuttle this size into space.

Other than that, the inside of the shuttle could be mistaken for the inside of, well, a ship on earth. Six bunks lined one wall, stacked two high, and a section just forward of the bunks contained a cooking area and a circular table and seats that looked like they sank into the floor. The hatch they'd entered was set into the left side of the bulkhead, with the cooking area and bunks to their right and the cockpit to their left. A hatch at the back of the shuttle led to engineering, and was marked with 'Engineers Only.' Directly ahead of them was an area with six jumpseats facing a hatch that looked like it could be airtight. It was currently open, however, exposing the cockpit.

Teviir led Jaz over to the table, and once she'd taken a seat, he made his way over to a small machine with a nozzle for liquid. Grabbing a mug, he set it beneath the spout. "I've only got a few tea types in the computer, but so long as you don't mind 'celestial' tea, I think we're fine." They both smiled, her at how one of their tea types blended so well with where he was from, and him at getting a smile from her. He punched in a code, and a second later a hot amber liquid poured into the mug. He passed it to her, then opened what looked like a section of hull to reveal a refrigerator. He grabbed a 0g bottle of water and took a drink, then padded over to sit opposite her. "Alright, so... Assuming you're not scouting out my shuttle so you can give a detailed report to your military..."

Jaz nodded, taking a sip of the tea before looking at him. "Why did you lie?" She asked, completely serious. And that threw him. 'How did you get here,' 'what do you want,' or even 'are you going to kill us all,' he understood and expected. But 'Why did you lie?' His cofusion and surprise must have been clear, because she smiled a bit. "I overheard your conversation with Paulo, so I know why you're part of the group. But why did you lie?"

He gave a nervous shrug. "Not everything was a lie," He started off, glancing away. "Most of my 'I like' comments were true. I DO enjoy helping people with math, too. But, well... I lied about who I was as part of standard procedure." He raised his hands, stalling her outcry. "In my people's military, standard procedure for crashing on a populated planet is to blend in if possible, or hide if not, and wait for a rescue party. In situations where the planet hasn't attained standard space-flight in their solar system, revealing yourself as an alien species is very, very high in the 'no-no' section." He smiled slightly. "I kind of failed that part. Because, you know... You're in my shuttle."

She thought for a moment, gazing at him over the rim of her mug as she sipped her tea. Then, "But you're telling the truth now?"

He shrugged. "I would have kept pretending I was from Earth until I was picked up if you hadn't followed me. Why DID you follow me, by the way?"

She blinked slowly, then broke eye contact, looking off to her left. "I thought, uh... That I'd offer you something to eat, since you're... Well, since I thought you were homeless."

He laughed, glancing around. "Yeah, I guess my 'home' is better than most, huh?" He chuckled softly. "Honestly, I thought knowing what I was would scare you. A lot."

"Scare me?" She tilted her head, one ear flicking.

"Xenophobia, the fear of aliens, is something very common on planets like yours." He sat back. "I thought that you'd suffer from that."

"Maybe it just hasn't sunk in yet," She suggested, smiling a bit. "You don't look any different than anyone else, and I've already known you for a month. Maybe I'll have nightmares tonight about you drinking my blood through a straw!"

Teviir rolled his eyes as she set her mug down and brought her hands up next to her cheeks, hissing like a feline vampire. A Vampurr? Hmm... "As far as I know, there's no difference between you and me, except our planet of birth and technolog-" He broke off, choking as he realized just where his brain was going with that line of thought. Their genes were identical, with only the usual difference that meant they weren't family. It meant, among other things, that their two civilizations could co-exist without them ever knowing. Completely co-exist.

"What's wrong?" Jaz asked, frowning. Teviir opened his mouth to reply, but was saved from making up an excuse for his abrupt silence by an alarm both in his CT implant and the ship's audio alarm system. Jumping up, he ran into the cockpit, soon followed by a clearly confused Jasmine. "What's going on?"

The cockpit was pretty standard small-ship design. Immediately to the left and right of the hatch were two consoles, astronavigation and point defense control, both of which were circular booths mostly surrounded by monitors. Then there were two consoles set into the walls, one on either side, with only three monitors each. One was communications, and the other was torpedo controls. Then, finally, there were two control seats situated right in front of the viewports from the cockpit, identical to each-other in every way. Pilot's and co-pilot's seating. Unlike on Earth-model aircraft, this ship's pilot couch was on the left, and the co-pilot's was on the right. Jumping into the pilot's seat, Teviir began flicking switches, growling softly to himself.

"Teviir?" He glanced up at her, noting the fear in her voice. She'd sensed the nervousness in him, and it was setting her on edge. Unfortunately, if what his CT implant was reporter were correct, he couldn't offer her the consolation that it was nothing to be scared of. "What's going on?"

"One second, I'll let you know for sure..." He flicked one last switch, and the shuttle's engines hummed to life, a gentle thrum that set his mind at ease despite the situation. Three monitors slid down from above, angling themselves until he could see what they displayed. One image was that of two circles, one large and one small. The large one was blue, and had a small white dot on it, while the smaller one was gray. And between the two were eight red dots, with a series of numbers arrayed next to them. The second image was a damage report of the ship, all of which were orange: nothing life-threatening for space travel. And the third was a 3D image, slowly revolving, with an information bar next to it. That image was of a sleek, fighter-like ship with missiles mounted beneath the wings.

"Alright... You know how I told Paulo we were at war?" He asked, his voice surprisingly calm. "I wasn't kidding. My people are at war, what I guess you would call a War of Liberation. The alarms mean that enemy ships are nearby, and those," he pointed towards the model, "is the enemy ship type. Eight Buzzard-class fighters. Fast, lightly shielded and heavily armed for their size." He glanced back at her. "I think I brought war to Earth..."

She stared at him, and for a second, he felt certain that she was going to burst into tears. Then she took a deep breath, apparently marshaling her courage, and said, "So, what do we do?"

He blinked at her, and for a moment he could only stare. Then he laughed, turning the couch around and pushing himself to his feet. He reached over and patted her shoulder, grinning. "I wish I'd been as brave as you when I first got onto a ship." Then he stepped past her, walking back into the entryway and reaching out to pull open a locker. Inside was his space suit: It was heavily armored as space suits go, with segmented plates of lightweight metal across the chest, back, arms, and legs. It even had an extension for his tail, which used static electricity to pull all the fur on his tail straight to allow for comfort. It was painted black, and if anyone tried to x-ray it, or discover him in space using Radar or Ladar, they would find that it was heavily shielded from radiation and had practically no signature. It was, in essence, a stealth suit. He paused, then reached over to the locker next to it, pulling it open and motioning to Jaz. "What we do, you ask? We're going to put on our suits, get this baby flying, and kick their Varnesian asses out of this solar system."

Jaz blinked, watching as he pulled on the suit, then began mimicking his actions as she pulled the spare suit on. Having trained enough that he could pull his suit on within minutes of waking up, Teviir was completely suited up before she had quite gotten her feet in. He stepped over and helped her suit up, trying to use the same clinical detachement he had often used in the academy when helping classmates get suited up. But somehow, his thoughts of 'She's just another person' couldn't quite keep him from noticing... Well, her. Nope, detachment was NOT working.

Once she was suited up, he guided her to the cockpit, placing her in the copilot's couch as he settled into the pilot's couch. A few straps later, he took a breath. "This is your only chance to change your mind. Once we're in the air, the only way you're getting off this shuttle is when we walk off after shooting these guys down. You can even keep the suit, as a momento in case I, ah... Turn to space dust."

That got a sharp look from her, but instead of accepting his offer, she shook her head. When she spoke, it was like her voice was whispering in his ear, thanks to the crystal-clear communications system in their suits. "I asked what 'we' were going to do, not you. I'm scared silly, but I'm not leaving until this is done."

He nodded, his fingers flying across the controls. The soft thrum of the reactor became a steady rumble as the shuttle's engines came online. Powerful maneuvering thrusters on the underbelly of the shuttle lit off, lifting the shuttle above tree-top level. The landing skids retracted into the shuttle's underbelly, and as they retracted, he had a moment to nod at her. Then he grinned, fingers wrapping around the throttle and pushing it forward.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. minutes earlier-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Paulo grumbled as he followed the two sets of tracks in the snow, glancing back at David as he did. "I know I saw Jaz with him when they came out here. I KNOW I did. He'd better not have any ideas, the little..."

"Aren't you with Lucy?" David asked, blinking in confusion. "Why are you so concerned about Jasmine?"

Paulo spun, glaring. "Because she's awesome! Because she's one of the nicest people I've met and I don't want her getting hurt. And if he does hurt her, I'll kick his ass!"

It was about that time that the rumbling started, like huge boulders grinding against each-other. The two stopped, blinking and looking around. It was David who spotted it first, pointing above the treeline as the alien ship rose up, four huge engines glowing blue, dozens of blue dots along the underside lifting it airborn. Paulo stared for several seconds, then shouted, "The bastard is abducting her!" at about the same time that the four engines brightened, four cones of blue flame jumping billowing out as the ship accelerated into the sky.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

The initial g-forces of the launch pressed both of them into their seats, driving the air from their lungs as their suits compressed around their lugs to keep the blood in their upper bodies. Teviir grinned against the g-forces, the exhilaration of flying again sending adrenaline through his veins. When Jaz whimpered in his ear, though, he eased back on the throttle, and the giants on their chests vanished.

It took less than five minutes to leave the atmosphere, and once they were free of Earth's gravity, he increased the thrust again, pressing them into their seats. An alert chimed in his ear, alerting him that the enemy fighters were nearing effective missile range. He flicked two switches, arming the Point Defense systems and connecting it to the computer systems. Moments later, the computer chirped and marked two points in space on his helmet's HUD, marking two missiles. A few moments later, the shuttle shuddered as the point-defense railguns opened fire, and the two missile markers vanished. A few seconds later, six more missiles were marked, and subsequently destroyed by the ship's defense systems.

"We've got better defenses than them, and those defenses can be used to attack them, as well," Teviir said, reaching across the center console to pat the back of Jaz's hand, which had the console in a death grip. "And unlike them, we have shields, so we can take a lot of punishment before we go down." He brought up a heart monitor on his HUD and set it down next to his own, so he could keep an eye on Jaz while he flew. Then his attention was back to the enemy as a small counter began ticking down from thirty, counting the seconds until contact. Space was vast, but the distance between the Earth and its moon was miniscule compared to the distances shuttles normally traveled. He could cross the solar system in about two days if he had max thrust, and with what he had, it would probably take three. Compared to those distances, the distance they were traveling was a quick ride.

The counter hit zero, and another alarm blared. Teviir's hands tightened around the control yoke, turning it sharply to the right and pulling back. The view outside changed, the stars spinning and dropping below their bow as some device in the ship whined in complaint. Then, suddenly, the screen was filled with the tail end of one of the enemy fighters. Teviir's thumbs tapped one of the buttons at the top of the yoke's grip, and four streamers of light jumped from their nose, reaching out to meet the fighter, which disintegrated under the fire.

"L-lasers?" Jasmine asked, her heartbeat slowly slightly on his display. Teviir chuckled and nodded.

"High-energy, long range lasers, yeah. Their fighters are too small to mount a weapon like this, and their armor is pitiful compared to this ship's. But then, they weren't designed to fight in open space, not against a shuttle like this." He grinned a bit, even if she couldn't see, as he used his HUD to pull around, tracking his next target as it turned to avoid him.

The impact of the missile hitting their shields was like being dropped eight feet. There was no spray of sparks or damage to the ship, but the inertial impact of the missile, and the explosion as it detonated, shoved them hard. Jaz yelped, but managed to contain any further sounds of distress, and Teviir's respect for her went up another notch. Then he was lining up the next shot, four lances of light jumping from the nose of the shuttle and blowing away the second of the eight fighters. The display that had, until now, shown a damage list switched to an image of the shuttle itself, showing it from top, bottom, front, back, and sides. Each section had a dark blue film over it, save for a section in the back, near the engines, which had a lighter blue color. "Shields are still at acceptable levels. Must've tried throwing a shot right up our tail pipe." He shook his head, turning the ship onto its next target.

The next fifteen minutes consisted of Teviir tracking onto an opponent, blowing them out of the sky, getting hit by missiles that the PDS missed, and in one memorable turn of events, taking out one fighter with lasers while the shuttle's PDS tore apart two others.

"Well, that wasn't so bad," Teviir said, panting softly as his adrenaline began to fade. Jaz turned to face him, and he nodded at her, grinning behind his visor. "Just a few fighters, that's all."

Alarms screamed, and he grunted and jerked the yoke, the shuttle spinning off of its former trajectory, just as the viewscreen was filled by a huge, metallic hull. Jaz's control finally broke, and though she didn't scream, the squeak she managed seemed to hold a lot more fear. "What the hell is that?"

"That," Teviir murmured, adrenaline dumping into his veins again, "Is a destroyer. A Torren Syndicate destroyer. A very, very, very bad thing."


	5. Chapter 4: Underdog

The Torren Syndicate was, initially, a simple business group that had originated on the Torren homeworld of Veiran IV. They hadn't been especially large or ambitious, but they had grown steadily from obscurity to a sort of fame. Their ventures began with simple mining operations on Veiran's six moons, which were only just within their reach at the time. As they earned more and more money, the syndicate had grown larger and larger, and by the time the civilization was looking outside of its own solar system for colonization efforts, they had become the _de facto_ governing group of the planet.

Three-hundred years and much exploring later, the Torren Syndicate had spread to encompass a respectable territory in space, with two Earth-like planets, dozens of Mars-like planets, and hundreds of moons and other satellites. But during that time, the Syndicate had become corrupt, as all things do. Convinced of a doctrine of Manifest Destiny, and absolutely convicted to control every potentially habitable planet in the galaxy, the Torren Syndicate began pouring resources into warships. Over the next hundred years, the Syndicate spread from system to system. Those that were uninhabited were colonized, while those that were inhabited were brought under their rule by force, whether it was required or not. Any species that fought back was systematically destroyed, with every man, woman and child sacrificed to the 'god' that was the Torren Syndicate.

That was about the time that the Syndicate stumbled onto the outer fringes of the Alliance. Formally named the Verkun Galactic Alliance, it had been formed by five different species and named after the solar system in which the Alliance's documents had been signed. While similar to the Torren Syndicate in that it sought expansion into the galaxy, that one point was their only similarity. Whereas the Syndicate crushed any species that sought to remain independent, the Alliance navy had never been used in war at all. At the time, the only fleet was a fleet of thirty warships that escorted the colonization ships in case of pirate attack. Against the Syndicate fleet of more than three-hundred, the Alliance fleet was quickly overwhelmed, though they survived long enough to allow the colony ships to escape to the Alliance headquarters on Verkun.

The resulting mobilization was the largest in Alliance history, stripping every self-defense fleet from every one of the seventy systems under the Alliance's control in order to combat this new, terrifying opponent. When next the Syndicate trespassed into Alliance space, it was met with a fleet equal in numbers to their own, though heavier in escort ships than in capital ships. The resulting engagement was known as the beginning of the Liberation War, and despite their superiority in heavier ships, the Syndicate ships were simply too far behind the Alliance ships in terms of technology. The Syndicate retreated with a bare thirteen ships, while the Alliance fleet returned to drydock facilities across the Alliance to be repaired, and to replace the one-hundred-seven ships that had been destroyed in the fight.

From that moment on, the Alliance shifted its focus from expansion and exploration to warfare and ship construction. But the Syndicate was a powerful foe, and with every victory it claimed, minor or major, its technology improved. The gap between the Alliance and the Syndicate slowly closed, over a hundred-year-long period of warfare, until the differences in their technology was negligible.

Only a difference of design philosophies and a stubborness on the part of the Syndicate kept the Alliance from slowly being pushed back. The Syndicate ships were all light in comparison to their Alliance counterparts, both in terms of weapons and in terms of armor. Though they were normally outnumbered two-to-one, the heavier, more robust Alliance ships usually meant the difference between victory and defeat.

Of course, that meant very little to Teviir as he pulled their shuttle into a sharp turn and floored the throttle, accelerating away from the destroyer like a bat out of hell. While armed more heavily than the puny fighters he'd shot down, his shuttle's lasers couldn't even scratch the destroyer's shields, and he couldn't fire the torpedoes from his station. Which left only one option: Haul ass to the nearest cover and hope that the Alliance found them before the destroyer decided to rain hell down on the planet.

"Where are we going?" Jasmine asked, and from her tone he realized this wasn't the first time she'd asked that question. He took a deep breath, pulling himself from his thoughts and trying to lower his heart rate for several moments before looking over to her. She was staring at him, though he could see very little of her face past her visor.

"The Moon," he answered at length, wincing as their rear shields began to drain, the result of multiple laser hits. His fingers flew across the controls, diverting power from everything from life support and lighting to forward shields and pouring it into their rear shield projectors. As the cockpit went black, save for the lights of their consoles, he took a deep breath, glancing at the 3D model of the destroyer that was slowly revolving on the third monitor above him. It showed numerous red sections across the hull, which denoted battle damage. "Looks like it got pounded pretty hard... It must have been part of the task force that destroyed my ship." He smiled just a little, glad that the deaths of his shipmates hadn't gone unavenged. At the very least, this destroyer had taken some punishment.

"But... What if it goes after Earth? What if it tries to bomb the planet to make us come out?"

He shook his head, breathing a soft sigh of relief as the hits to their tail slowed, then stopped altogether. "They won't. If they wanted us, that destroyer is much faster than this shuttle." He breathed another soft sigh, cutting their acceleration so they would simply coast towards the moon and redistributing power. "If I could use the torpedoes on this bird, we might could hit one of their damaged sections, cripple them. But as it is, we don't have anyone to operate the station."

Jasmine sat there for several moments, and at one point lowered her head and laced her fingers together in her lap. Then she straightened, turning to look at him. "We can stop them from attacking Earth if you had someone to fire the torpedoes?" She asked, her voice intense.

Teviir nodded slightly, gazing at her silhouette and wondering what was going through her head. The only answers to the situation were either to hide and hope, or have her operate the torpedo station. It wasn't a hard job to do, simply selecting a torpedo to load, launching it, and marking its destination. The officers that normally manned those stations also had the option of remote-guiding the torpedo to its target, which allowed a lot of precision and typically dropped the likelihood that the torpedo would be shot down. But regardless of the simplicity of the act itself, it was the meaning behind the act that made him wonder. Jasmine was a religious person, not as tight about it as many of those he'd met in his life, but definitely devout. And if he'd read the scriptures right, their religion had a very negative outlook on violence of any sort. He suspected that, were he a believer himself, it would be even harder to justify using a weapon that could potentially kill hundreds of people at once. And yet, from her posture, he thought that that was exactly what she was planning to do.

"Then teach me how to do it," She said, undoing the straps that held her in the couch and floating slowly up. He was impressed; She was asking for a crash course in using torpedoes while in 0g, and she hadn't thrown up. The first time he'd been in 0g, he'd lost his breakfast AND lunch, and hadn't eaten dinner. Which reminded him...

Programming in a course that would take the shuttle around the moon and back at the destroyer in about seven hours, Teviir unbuckled himself and pushed himself up out of the couch. The monitors retracted back into their hiding spots, and he used the now-free bulkhead to push off, floating back through the cockpit's access hatch. From there, he maneuvered through the entrance and dining area, pressing a button that retracted the table and chairs into the floor as he went. The mug he'd given to Jaz was missing, but he had little doubt he'd find it eventually. Hopefully before it was smashed to pieces when he reactivated gravity.

He grunted as something heavy hit him from behind, knocking him forward and into the Engineering hatch. It quickly eased off of him, and when he turned to look, Jaz was floating a few feet away. "Sorry," She said, embarrassment clear in her voice. Teviir chuckled, then flicked the switch that activated and deactivated the nanoseal on his suit. When active, it created an airtight bond between the helmet and the throat of the suit using 'nanoadhesion.' When he deactivated it, a small battery in the suit would stop transmitting energy, and the adhesion would become weak. Reaching up, he pulled his helmet off with a soft 'hiss,' then reached over and pressed the button on Jaz's, as well.

Once she, too, was free of her helmet, he grinned at her. "Don't worry about it. It takes a lot of practice to get good at moving in zero gravity. Hopefully, you won't need the practice." She blinked, tilting her head and flicking an ear, and he chuckled. "Sorry, could've made that more clear. Hopefully, you won't be in space long enough to need to get used to it. Whether or not you're able to use those torpedoes, we're circling the moon and making for Earth."

She reached out and grabbed hold of one of the numerous inset handholds, designed just for use in 0g. Pulling herself to a complete halt, she slowly let go of the handhold, then folded her arms and glared at him. "We have to stop them from attacking the Earth. We can't just cross our fingers and hope that your people get here before they start shooting! If we do, everyone on Earth could be at risk! Tessa, Sue, Mike, Lucy... Paulo..." She broke off, turning sharply away, halting her spin when she was faced away by grabbing the handhold again.

Teviir sighed, reaching out and punching the button that would open the hatch to Engineering. She'd had something with Paulo, he could tell. He could also tell she wasn't quite over it yet. Reaching back into the hatch, he grabbed the hatchway and pulled himself through. "Keep your feet to the floor," He said quietly, pretending not to see the tiny, crystal-like spheres floating near her now. "And don't worry. I'll take care of them, one way or another. But if we don't do it on this run... I'll drop you off and ram through their shields. Maybe I'll hit their power core." He reached out and punched the button on the other side of the hatch, and it slid shut before he had to see her reaction.

The engineering area was cramped, running over, under, and around the living area on the shuttle, as well as the inside of the engine nacelles and the reactor. It was a standard Pair Annihilation reactor, mixing matter and Antimatter and using the energy released to create power. The path to the reactor's control panel was the only space one could walk into in Engineering, with the rest consisting of crawl spaces just large enough for someone in a space suit to crawl through.

He walked over to the control panel and brought up a status report, then shifted the reactor to standby, all of the excess energy being funneled to a battery that would keep life-support online for a few hours. Once the risk of being electrocuted was gone, he pulled himself to the floor and dragged himself into one of the crawlspaces.

It took nearly twenty minutes to navigate the crawlspaces on the shuttle to get where he wanted to go. Another ten minutes to fix the damaged power coupling, and another fifteen to retrace his steps back to the reactor. When he brought it back online, he felt the gravity plating come online as well, pulling his feet firmly to the deck.

He wanted to curl up, just hide away and pretend that nothing was going on, that there wasn't a warship behind them and that he wasn't going to be engaging it again. But the thought of letting the people on Earth die, the thought of watching as missiles and lasers scorched the surface of the planet, was horrible. He'd seen it done on a world, seen the destruction even a destroyer could unleash on a planet. And he would have no part in allowing it to happen. He would have no part in wasting a girl's tears. Pushing away from the console, he spun and walked to the door, which hissed open as he punched the switch.

He was very much unprepared for the sharp slap he received the moment he stepped through the hatch. It sent him staggering back against the frame of the hatch, blinking the starburst out of his eyes as he tried to focus on Jasmine. She stood before him, glaring angrily, hands on her hips. Before he could say a word, she stepped forward. He braced himself for another slap...

And was broadsided when she wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his chest. What in the... "You don't get to sacrifice yourself," She said, voice muffled by his suit. He blinked, hesitantly putting his arms around her. "You've already thrown my world into disarray by showing up, and then by being an alien. You don't get to mess it up even more by dying."

"And the slap was for...?" He asked, his voice soft, and perhaps a little hurt. What did she mean, throwing her world into disarray? He hadn't tried to ruin anything for her, and had only started tutoring her on her request. If he'd screwed things up for her, she shouldn't have kept it to herself.

"For suggesting that I would let you leave me on Earth while you tried to save us." She stepped back, glaring firmly up at him, her eyes alight with determination. "Now, show me how to use the torpedoes so I can help you save the planet."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. hours later.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"I'm telling you, he abducted her!" Paulo was stalking this way and that, growling and bristling and looking overall like a very, very unhappy cat. "I watched them walk off together, and when I followed after them, I saw the ship flying up into space, and their tracks ended right where it was. He abducted her and he's taking her back to wherever he came from!"

Mike cocked an eyebrow, folding his arms and staring at him. "All we know is that she hasn't called her parents and she isn't home yet."

"Yeah, for all we know, they could be somewhere talking and forgot to call anyone!" Daisy spoke up, stepping forward to stand next to Mike.

"Yeah, because people disappear alone for hours just to _talk._" Paulo rolled his eyes, turning on Mike. "Either he abducted her or-"

About then, a siren began to wail, a mournful sound that made everyone's hearts drop, even if they didn't know what it meant.

"What the hell is that?" Mike cringed, covering his sensitive ears and looking around.

"I think it's the emergency siren," Daisy said, looking around. "I haven't heard it used in years... Why do you think they're using it now?"

"It means to get inside," Abbey said, looking around. The group had gathered at Paulo's request, worried about his claims that Jasmine had been taken. Now they looked around, tilting their heads and wondering what had prompted the city to sound the alarm.

"My place is closest," Lucy said, motioning for the group to follow. "We'll stay there until that siren stops, then we can go look for Jasmine."

"We can't wait!" Paulo exploded, turning towards her. At the look she gave him, he gulped audibly, took a breath, and tried again. "We can't afford to wait. Every second we waste is another second she's taken farther and farther away."

"If he took a space ship, don't you think it's already too late? They could be halfway to mars right now." Tess folded her arms. "Let's go looking for them. If we can't find them... We'll think of something we can do."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"We could be halfway to Mars by now, if the explosion hadn't damaged the propulsion." Teviir shook his head and sighed, fingers flying expertly across the toggles on his control panel. "Diverting power to your station," he said loudly, tilting his head slightly to project his voice back towards Jasmine. Until they entered the five-minute 'circle' around the hostile ship, he wasn't going to make her wear a helmet. He knew most people felt claustrophobic when they wore their suits too long. He wasn't about to make her remove her suit, but without the helmet, it wouldn't feel too bad for her.

"I'm getting it," She called back, and he heard a rapid tapping. Frowning slightly, Teviir reached over and tapped in a rapid command on a small console next to his controls. He glanced at the screen, nodded, and turned his attention back to his viewscreen. "What... Nevermind, nevermind, it's running."

He smiled slightly to himself. "What happened?"

Her voice was determined, but held the same note his had when he'd been placed in a live-fire exercise for the first time. She was out of her depth, knew it, but insisted on trying anyway. "The screen blacked out for a second, then a bunch of symbols crossed the screen, then it went back to the the screen you showed me."

He nodded to himself, then said, "It was probably warning you that the torpedoes were armed. Don't worry too much about..." He paused, an ear flickering as a silent alert went through his subcutaneous transmitter.

"Countdown reads ten minutes to combat range," Jasmine said nervously, deaf to the message Teviir was getting. "This is really happening, isn't it?" She yelped when he pulled on the controls, tugging the shuttle into a long, lazy loop. "What are you doing?" She asked, pushing out of her seat and making her way up to him.

"Making sure we don't play the role of bug on the windshield," Teviir said, grinning madly. "Standard procedure for a fleet exiting FTL in an area that has small ships in it is for a transmission to be sent to any ships in the system. I just got a transmission announcing... Well, you have to see it." He maxed out the acceleration, then brought up a rear view of the space near the destroyer.

He held up his hand when she started to speak, halting her and watching the screen. He'd stripped it of warning markers and target markers, leaving it to the simple image enhancement to show the destroyer, a tiny dot in the vastness of space, with the large blue disk of Earth floating farther beyond it. Then...

The arrival was like a lightning storm seen at a distance. There was darkness, then a bright flash of light, and then there was a single ship, just a bit smaller than the destroyer. And then another flash lit up the great void, and another ship appeared, this one larger than the destroyer. Then the arrivals became so close together that it was almost a constant shine that whited out the screen. And when it faded...

More than seventy ships floated between their shuttle and the Torren destroyer, the glow of their drive systems facing them. There was a brief flare of light, and the destroyer vanished. Jasmine watched, wide-eyed, as the fleet began to turn towards them. "What... What is that?"

"That," Teviir said, rapping out commands on the small console, the screen zooming in on one ship's hull, where the image of two swords were crossed behind a large round shield, the inside of the shield painted to look like a solar system, "Is the Vorkun Alliance Expeditionary fleet."

(Author's Note: I'm so sorry for how long it took to get this next chapter up! My laptop broke, and I wasted a week of my time waiting for an independent group to tell me whether or not they could fix it. When the answer turned out to be no, they couldn't, I wasted the rest of the time waiting for Dell to get the computer, and then to send it back. I'm sorry again. I'll try to get the next update up by Wednesday, July 3, but because of the 4th being so close, I might hold off until Friday, July 5th. Send a message to my BCB forums account, Lost_Cookie, to know what the plan is.)


	6. Chapter 5: Bonds

Two hours after the arrival of the fleet, Teviir and Jasmine found themselves in a surprisingly spacious room, certainly different from the cramped quarters aboard the shuttle. These quarters were split into four rooms: A sitting room, an office, a small bedroom, and a bathroom complete with shower. They were currently facing each-other from their positions in two armchairs, Teviir on the edge of the seat, elbows on his knees, hands clasped, Jaz leaning back and trying to relax in such alien conditions. They were aboard the fleet Flagship, the _Faded Memory_, a huge battleship-class vessel that had none of the signs of damage much of the rest of the fleet had from the surprise attack.

Teviir was even dressed in a black-and-silver Naval uniform, a pair of rank insignia on his shoulders that meant nothing to Jasmine. At least, not on their own; She'd read a bit about military on Earth, but this symbol wasn't like anything she'd read about. They consisted of two red bars laid next to each-other, bound together with two silver bands, with two gold stars set into the middle of each. But she knew what they represented, from the greeting he'd received upon stepping out of the shuttle in the ship's huge shuttle bay.

"So, Captain, huh?" Jasmine asked, cocking an eyebrow at him and smiling a bit. "You could've told me you were so important. I'd have saluted you."

Teviir laughed, scratching the back of his head and grinning an embarrassed grin. "It's not really that big a rank. I was just the captain of a light cruiser, not even half the _Faded Memory_'s size. It's probably why my ship was one of the ones targeted; We're essentially a screening force for the heavy cruisers, Battlecruisers and Battleships. We made sure the little guys can't bug the big guys so they can focus on the big bad guys. Because of that, we were positioned near the outside of the fleet. I was down near the shuttle bay when the surprise attack hit. I hit my head on something, so a lot of it is fuzzy. I remember thinking that I'd gotten everyone out of the shuttle bay, then climbing into the shuttle we were in and launching. The ship exploded behind me, and... I don't know. I don't remember activating the FTL, but I must have, because I was a fair distance from Earth."

"What happened to your ship?" She asked, concern in her voice, a slight frown of concern touching her lips.

Teviir's whole body chilled as he allowed his mind to go over the thoughts he'd fought off since arriving on Earth. "Destroyed. That tablet the Admiral gave me in the shuttle bay showed the casualty list." He breathed a ragged sigh, shaking his head. "Only twenty-nine of the three-thousand crewmembers died, but... That was twenty-nine people who relied on me. Twenty-nine people who died because I wasn't good enough."

"Don't start talking like that, Captain Nusakan, or I may have to remove a promising line officer from the command pool." The voice was mature, female, and came from the doorway. There stood a tall, elegant-looking white feline, dressed in the same type of uniform as Teviir, though her shoulders sported three platinum starbursts with crimson cores, linked by silver bars. If it weren't for her eyes, which were dark brown, she could have been Lucy as an adult.

Teviir was on his feet in an instant, snapping to a rigid salute, his back now to Jasmine. "Admiral Kincaid, ma'am. I wasn't aware you had downloaded the English language. My apologies for not addressing you in English."

The feline, Admiral Kincaid, returned the salute, then leaned against the door frame. "At ease, Captain. Yes, I downloaded the language just prior to your coming aboard. It is an interesting language, to be certain. I'm sorry about your ship."

"It's... I'll live, Ma'am. That's more than twenty-nine others can say." Teviir's shoulders sagged, and for a moment he seemed much older than his age.

"We lost a lot of good men and women in that sneak attack," Admiral Kincaid said, sighing softly and shaking her head. "We lost several ships, as well, yours included. The captain of the _Frontline_ was one of the officers we lost. He was returning from the _Faded Memory_ when the attack hit, and his shuttle was caught in the fire."

"Captain Graymark was a good man," Teviir said sadly, shaking his head. "Who replaced him as CO of the _Frontline_?"

"A captain of a light cruiser, by the name of Captain Nusakan. He recently lost his own command, and after surviving on a non-Alliance planet for months, returned with several fighter kills under his belt. It is my judgement that he deserves a position of command, as opposed to the ship's second officer, who is currently acting captain."

Teviir stared at her for several seconds, and only Jaz saw the slight, nervous twitch of his tailtip. "Ma'am, all due respect, but the _Frontline_ is a Battlecruiser. The Admiralty broke a lot of precedences when they made me captain of a light cruiser. To put me in command of a battlecruiser is..."

"You deserve the position, Teviir," Admiral Kincaid said, her voice a touch softer now. Clearly, this wasn't a command moment. "You fought in two battles before the attack, and both times, you were the shield that kept enemy forces from hitting the _Memory._ I had wanted to promote you before-hand, but there just weren't any vacant command stations, and I wasn't going to relegate you to first officer." Her voice tightened, and the moment, whatever it was, was over. "You are to take your passenger and report to the _Frontline_ immediately, to assume command."

"Ma'am, um..." Teviir shifted, frowning. "I feel that I should remain on or near Earth for the foreseeable future. I'm not an expert, but I've made friends on the Earth. If I can find a way to make it back to Earth without making others suspicious, I could get a feel for the situation, see how they're reacting to our presence in the system."

Admiral Kincaid gazed at him for several moments, then laughed softly. "A perfectly acceptable reason to send someone to the planet for an extended period. I can do you one better. I'll assign one of our civilian negotiators to your ship. We can't afford to remain in this system for too long, not with the big push coming up. However, we have sufficient forces to detach a protection detail to a system such as this one. And SOP is for the detachment to be commanded by the captain of a Battlecruiser. As of now, your standing orders are to remain in this system until such a time as our fleet returns, or an agreement is reached by our civilians and an alliance protection fleet is dispatched to replace you. Should such a time come, you will have to transport a group of Earth officials to Verkun. At such a time, should it be allowed by Earth's government, you may also take a group of civilians to their destination of choice, to be followed by two weeks of paid leave." She smiled a bit. "I could say that your current assignment is paid leave, but the word of the rules are different from the spirit." She saluted Teviir, then turned. "Take care of my young captain, little lady," she said over her shoulder before she disappeared out the door.

Teviir blinked, then turned and flopped heavily into the chair he'd been given. "That didn't just happen, did it?" He asked, looking over at Jasmine, then groaning and running his hand through his hair, her expression all he needed. "Of course it did...

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Thirteen Days Later .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Earth .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

In the end, the manner in which they returned to Earth was, at once, more simple and complex than they had expected. Though the first day was spent setting up a new command chain and seeing the main fleet off, the next twenty-four hours was spent almost entirely in planning how to return them without raising the suspicions of those who knew them. In the end, a bit of political word-play ended in a joyous reunion for Jaz and her parents, and at least kept Teviir's secret from getting out.

The Official story was that a survivor from the Alliance had crash-landed on Earth, and had been giving Teviir a place to sleep at night in exchange for being kept out of the way of the town's searches while he repaired his ship. When the Syndicate arrived, Jasmine had just discovered Teviir's 'residence,' and had been inside speaking to the Alliance crewman. The Crewman hadn't had time to usher them off, and so had instead taken them into space with him. They were only now returning because, in the aftermath of the battle, there had been too much to do to spare a shuttle for their diplomatic negotiator and two civilians.

The best lie was one that was surrounded by a fair coating of truth.

Following the official arrival of the Alliance to Earth, a large area of the forest he had crash-landed at was selected as the Alliance's embassy on Earth. Using part of the stretch of forest he'd bowled over, they cleared a large circle of land, put up a fence, and constructed several ornate, pre-fabricated buildings. In keeping with the story, Teviir was considered homeless, and with the excuse that they wished to make up for the pains he'd gone through during the space flight, he was given lodging in one of the structures. He was still able to go to Roseville for his schooling, but he and Jasmine had become quite popular recently. As the first people to meet the aliens, they were viewed with something akin to awe by many. Unfortunately, many others also viewed them with suspicion. The Xenophobia that Teviir had known was present as expressed full-out, and though the males quickly learned not to try to physically bully Teviir, they still threw nasty insults their way.

Perhaps their saving grace was the group. Despite being uncomfortable regarding the aliens, the group was more supportive than Teviir had expected. At least, they supported Jasmine. While he got some encouragement from Tess, Daisy, and even Abby in his own way, much of the group concentrated on Jasmine. Which was fine with him, because he didn't want to be comforted for something that hadn't put him out in the least.

Still, the pressure of a new alien species on their planet was building, and even in Roseville, Teviir could feel it. Something told him it was going to blow, and the last time he'd ignored that little inner voice, his ship had been blown out from under him. He gave his small fleet orders to maintain shields on any portion of the ship facing towards the planet, in case the governments attempted to forcefully remove them, and the man represented as the commander of the protection fleet made numerous appearances on TV, assuring people that no ill intent existed, even as their negotiator labored to create a treaty.

One day, hoping to escape the pressures present in Roseville, Teviir looked about at the group. It was just after school, and they had clustered themselves at a pair of picnic tables in the park, discussing the teacher's lectures of the day, griping about the various displays of xenophobia, and generally releasing their pent-up worries. It was small-ish today, with only Paulo, Mike, Lucy, Jasmine, and Tessa present. When he started to speak, everyone turned their attention to him, and he realized with a jolt that he had used his 'officer' voice, the voice a commander used to ensure he got the attention he required. Dialing it back, he tried again, playing for the meek voice he'd used prior to the Syndicate's arrival. "So, we all know that everyone's tense, right?" He asked, looking from person to person. "I mean, the aliens put their base camp not a mile from here. The military hasn't done anything yet, but we've been seeing choppers and airplanes flying around almost non-stop since they set down. There's nobody here that isn't nervous that someone's going to try something, or do something, right?"

Everyone nodded, though they all kept quiet. Except, predictably, Paulo. "They'd have to be insane to try anything." He said staring hard at Teviir. Though he'd accepted the story to the public, he'd never really gotten past his belief that Teviir had abducted Jasmine. It was clearly putting some strain on his relationship with Lucy, but that seemed to be the elephant in the room. Besides, whatever his feelings for Jasmine, his feelings for Lucy were much more present and much stronger, so Teviir had figured it would work out eventually.

"Who? The military or the aliens?" Abby asked, cocking an eyebrow and gazing coolly at Paulo. "The military probably has guns pointing at Roseville from around the country, but even so, these people are from space. And not only are they so much more advanced than us that they can travel through space, they're at war. Those aren't luxury liners up there, those ships have guns. I don't want to think what those guns could do if they were aimed at us."

"Not to mention their soldiers," Jasmine chimed in, glancing at Teviir. "When I went to visit Teviir yesterday, I saw their infantry training. They were..." She shook her head, whistling. Teviir contained his smile with some effort. She'd had to visit him at the compound, since he'd been busy overseeing the very training exercise she was referring to. They'd spent most of the day watching as his infantry ran, jumped, and fought each-other. It had been as much a stress relief for his soldiers as it had been a training exercise, but he was sure that the Earth's governments would read more into it.

Still, it had been impressive, taken in comparison to what he'd seen of this planet's military forces. For one, they had the unseen, but very real, biomechanical enhancements that his people used. Minor muscle enhancements, biomedical nanobot dispensers, and a carbon nanotube sheathing on their bones that made it much, much harder to break them.

Their other strength, and by far their greatest, was their armor. Not kevlar, as modern Earth militaries used. And not steel plates, though they were close. They were, in all fact, not that dissimilar to the armor used in popular franchises, such as the video game series Halo, or the book series Mechwarrior. Standing about six-and-a-half feet, these super-dense suits weighed almost a ton. Painted uniform black, the suits were powered by MTE, or Mass to Energy generators, which converted the mass of a fuel cell directly into energy to power them. It was a technology that had only just been made available to modern forces in the last fifty years, and the Expeditionary Fleet was the first fleet, both in ships and in powered armor, to use this power generation method to the exclusion of all others.

The alloys put into the armor plating that made up the skin of the suit was above his security clearance, but whatever the specific composition, it was impossible for modern small-arms to penetrate. Weapons such as M-16's, AK-47's, and even .50 caliber weapons, were either entirely or almost entirely useless against these suits. Equipped with arm-mounted 5mm miniguns firing hypersonic, armor-piercing rounds, they were also equipped with more 'standard' 12mm assault rifles, 20mm sniper rifles, and 35mm anti-material rifles, depending on the user's specialization. Using pseudo-muscles placed under the armor plating itself, the suit can propel itself at almost fifty miles an hour at a sprint, thirty-five miles an hour at a jog, and could jump three and a half stories straight up from a standing start, or four and a half to six with a running start.

All of this, compounded by their fierce appearance and claw-tipped hands and feet, made the entire exercise into something that, as Jasmine had later described it, 'belongs in a science-fiction novel or video game, not in a forest a few miles from Roseville High.'

"They were impressive," Teviir agreed, sighing softly. "But the military may see it as a threat, not a, a... I don't know, training exercise, or a stress valve, whatever. There's a lot of stress that's just getting bigger and bigger, and Roseville is right at the heart of it. Why don't we jump on a bus and head to the city for a while?"

"Why?" Mike asked, leaning forward a bit and blinking at him.

"To get away from it. I mean, we have the entire weekend in front of us, don't we? Why don't we head into the city and just... Relax?"

"What would we do?" Tess asked, her tail flicking just over her shoulder. "I mean, there's not much to do here, but I've only been to the city occasionally. I'm not even sure what there is to DO there."

"Well, we could-"

And that was as far as he got on that subject. Because at that moment, a group of his soldiers, Viper Squad from the emblem on their left shoulders, trotted up. As they slowed, their heavy feet dug furrows in the grass, giving unspoken testament to their weight. The leader stepped up and saluted Teviir. When she spoke, her voice came from the helmet as though it weren't there. There was an apology in her voice, but her words brushed aside his angry reaction to the salute. "Fleet Commander Nusakan, sir... It's the Syndicate. They're back."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Two Hours Later .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Alliance Embassy Tactical Command Center .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Teviir stood in the Tactical Command Center of the Alliance Embassy, staring at a holographic representation of the solar system. It depicted a small cluster of blue dots just above the big, blue sphere that represented the Earth. Farther out, an orange sphere represented mars. And beyond that, just outside the asteroid belt, was a cluster of red dots that represented the Syndicate fleet. And another cluster, this time of red squares with several dots mixed in, rested on the green line that indicated Earth's orbit around the sun. "When, exactly, did they deploy a landing force without us knowing?" He asked, glaring across at the interim fleet commander, the one the Earth's public knew.

"Clearly, sir, if we didn't know they put them there, we can't say when they did it." The male, larger than Teviir but with less muscle definition and more fat content, and dirty brown fur, glared right back at the young feline. Clearly, he was one of the many who resented being commanded by a vastly younger officer. Teviir gave a long sigh, rubbing the bridge of his nose, and only stopping when Jasmine placed her hand on his shoulder.

It had taken a long time to beat down the complaints at having 'non-Alliance civilians' in the command center. In the end, he'd had to ask Sergeant Carter, the marine that had come to tell him of the Syndicate's arrival, to sit in on the briefing with her team to ensure that nobody would challenge the young man's authority... Or, well, he asked for a marine squad from his old ship to sit in. Viper squad had been the group sent, and he was thankful for that, both because they trusted his commands and because, if worse came to worst, they were fully-armored juggernauts with orders to get Jasmine and the others out if weapons were used.

The bonus was, their presence had kept Paulo from trying to deck him. He didn't look forward to the next time they were alone, without soldiers standing nearby.

"What I meant, Captain, was when did we give them the opportunity to deploy landing forces ahead of us before they revealed themselves where they did?"

"Never." The male said certainly, shaking his head. "The net was as tight as it could possibly be, at all times."

"Clearly," Teviir said dryly, cocking an eyebrow, "there WAS a time, or they wouldn't be present. Would they, Captain?"

The male bristled, suppressed rage in his voice. "Clearly, Fleet Commander..." He might have been choking.

Teviir took a small breath, then focused his attention on the hologram. "If you want to deck me," he said idly, his mind working over the distances and times involved in the image, "You can do it after we kick these bastards out of this system." He frowned, then punched the surface of the projector. Jasmine and the captain both jumped. "Damn them! If we move the fleet to engage the landing forces, the main fleet can boost to the Earth and bomb the surface once we pass the Terminator. If we move to engage the fleet, the landing forces can move in and make ground-fall once we pass the terminator. And if we split the fleet enough to destroy the landing force, they can overwhelm the two forces and destroy us piecemeal."

"If I may, sir?" Sergeant Carter stepped forward, motioning towards the holographic planet. Interacting with her suit, the hologram shifted, showing an area about one-hundred miles around Roseville. Drawing on schematics inside her suit's onboard computer, she began placing installations, trenches and artillery emplacements and more. "We need to take care of this fleet before they call in reinforcements. But we cannot leave the planet unprotected. If we were to unload the entirety of the ground forces stationed within the fleet, we can hold an area such as this relatively easily. Assuming the planet's military can ensure that the Syndicate forces can't just surround and starve us, that would free the fleet up to engage the main Syndicate fleet, then return to demand the ground forces' surrender, or destroy them from orbit."

Teviir gazed at the hologram as she drew away, the fighting pits, firing positions all marked in gray. "This would become quite the scar on the planet after the battle," He said slowly, frowning.

"All of our materials can be broken up and reused. Provided we don't get rid of the dirt and minimize clearcutting to the forest, every trace of the conflict will be gone within a generation or two."

Teviir turned to look at Jasmine, then glanced back at the various expressions on the group's faces. Then he breathed a deep, heavy sigh. "Begin transporting and organizing the defenders down from the fleet," he said, straightening. "Tell your engineers they have two weeks to construct Canopy Shield generators over this installation and the surrounding defensive positions. Tell them I expect them to have an airfield constructed, as well. As soon as there's space for them to land, I want our aerospace fighters landing. All of them. Set up anti-landing weapons at the positions she indicated. I want a citadel when we're done people. Go!" The captain and several other officers in the command center saluted, then hustled out of the room, leaving Teviir, Jasmine, the gang, Sergeant Carter and her soldiers, and many junior officers working at stations surrounding them. Turning towards the group, Teviir smiled a bit. "Anybody have loved ones they want placed in the middle of the absolute safest place on the planet?"


	7. Chapter 6: Changing Tides

"**War grows out of the desire of the individual to gain advantage at the expense of his fellow man." Napoleon Hill **

As it had turned out, and as Teviir had expected, everyone had family members they wanted kept safe. He'd requisitioned one of his fleet's eight transport V-TOLs and devoted it to gathering family members. With his secret out, at least amongst the part of the table that had been with him, Teviir had completely dropped his act, and had even taken to wearing his uniform outside of the embassy.

When the negotiator broke the news that these new ships were hostile, and that they were likely going to land on the planet, pandemonium had broken out, though that, too, was expected. He ended up making multiple TV appearances, hoping that his assurances that his people would protect the planet as best they could would calm some people, and at least keep the American government from adding to their problems. He had given Carter a brevet promotion to general, and even now she was discussing tactics with the American government on how to better protect Roseville, and the rest of the nation in general.

He was glad to lay that difficulty at someone else's feet, though that cheer made him feel guilty at the same time. He simply wasn't good enough at ground tactics to be able to tell what to do. Defense in space and against space, that was his strength. That and the forty hours of Powered Suit training he'd received in officer school. He could move in powered armor without hurting himself, which was about as tenth as well as the standard infantryman. But it was about as good as a fleet officer was expected to get, and better than some.

He sort of wished he had a suit now, watching the clouds pass underneath the VTOL as they flew. He felt naked, knowing that a hostile landing force was just three weeks away, and that he was 'safely' on the other side of a bare three inches of armored aircraft skin and reinforced glass, some thirty-thousand feet in the air. He glanced over at Mike, then smiled a bit to himself and shook his head, thinking back on how they'd wound up here...

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Several Hours Earlier .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Alliance Embassy .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Don't worry," Teviir said for the third time in a row, lightly patting Tess's shoulder and smiling slightly. "We won't stop trying to move people here until the minute those ships enter the atmosphere. We'll get everyone here, one way or another. For now, why don't you head to the mess, get something to eat? You haven't touched anything since lunch at school. Y'know, two days ago?" She managed a brittle smile at him and nodded, turning and walking down the hallway. Teviir sighed and shook his head, hoping for her sake that they managed to get a hold of her father. Then he turned, planning on visiting the TCC and see how the transfer of personnel and materials was progressing.

And came up short to avoid trampling Mike. "Ah, hey!" He took a step back, out of Mike's personal space, and smiled a bit. "Sorry, I didn't know you were there. Has your family made it?"

"Yeah, they got here yesterday," Mike said, shifting from foot to foot uncomfortably. "Haley really enjoyed riding in the VTOL. She wants to fly one now."

Teviir chuckled and shook his head, smiling a bit. "She'd have to get past the pilot, and that's much easier said than done. I've met with him several times since we started the evacuation, and he loves that thing almost more than he loves his own life."

Mike nodded, and Teviir's smile faded. He wanted something, but he didn't like asking for it. Teviir was about a minute from saying something when Mike beat him to it. "Sandy wants to come here, but travel has been all but stopped since the announcement. She says she'll find a way." He stopped, looking up at Teviir, who sighed softly.

"Let me guess," he said, eyes closed. "You were wondering if I could use my newfound status as Protector of the Earth to get her here?" He opened his eyes, blinking when he saw the determination in his eyes. Chuckling softly, he shook his head. "Can't do it. I can't order the planet's government around, at least not until they sign into the Alliance. But," he continued, before Mike could give up hope, "I can offer to take her and her family under our protection for the duration of this event. If they accept, then I COULD get her on a short-hop on the VTOL."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Present .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Teviir blinked himself out of his thoughts as his stomach jumped up to shake hands with his brain, which meant that the VTOL was beginning its descent towards the field they'd agreed to meet Sandy at. As he had told Mike, he couldn't push the government around, which meant he couldn't demand landing clearance from their landing strips. But he COULD have a brief 'emergency' that would necessitate them setting down in the field, and then return to the Embassy for repairs. If they happened to pick up some passengers, well... That was life.

The rear ramp of the VTOL hummed downwards, and Teviir unhooked himself from the VTOL's jumpseat, and the five-point harness that held him in place, and stood, even as Mike tore off towards the ramp. Shaking his head at the feline's impatience, Teviir took a few seconds to stretch the kinks out before following him down the ramp.

There were only three people at the base of the ramp, including Mike. The oldest was a tall, white-furred cat with a bob-cut of black hair, dressed in a brown trenchcoat that rustled in the rotor wash and looking distinctly disgruntled. Taking the initiative, Teviir smiled and saluted her. "Ma'am, if you would like to take your baggage aboard, the copilot will help you get everything stowed away for the flight, and give you the safety run-down." She gave him a look that almost withered his smile away, then hefted a suitcase in one hand and began walking up the ramp.

Now he was left with Mike and his girlfriend, and as he turned his attention to her, he had to blink. Several times, in fact.

Mike had told him she was a model on the flight, but that hadn't prepared him to meet her. Though she was bundled up in a trenchcoat not unlike the adult's, he could tell she wasn't one of the size-one models that plagued the planet. Her hair, tied up with a ribbon the same blue as Mike's scarf, was glossy black, and the eyes beneath her bangs held warmth, especially as they gazed at Mike. "Maishul!" She said with a smile, wrapping her arms around Mike. "I was worried you were going to get hurt!"

"Maishul, huh?" Teviir asked with a half-grin, taking the last step off the ramp and offering his hand to Sandy. "You must be the girl he's been talking about. A pleasure to meet you. I'm... Well, I think I was his friend for a little while. Captain Teviir Nusakan, at your service."

Sandy broke away from Mike and took Teviir's hand, shaking it lightly. "It's nice to meet you, Teviir." She paused, looking him over. "I've heard a little about you. You certainly don't look like an alien."

Teviir laughed, nodding a bit. "Neither do you," he said, and she joined in with a soft laugh of her own. As the rotor wash grew from a rough breeze to a light hurricane, he motioned towards the ramp. "If you would take your baggage in, we'll get you seated and on the way to Roseville."

"I've got it," Mike said before Sandy could reply, grabbing her suitcase and turning to carry it up the ramp. Nodding at him, Teviir waited until Sandy was on her way up before looking back across the field. Then he breathed a long sigh and turned, climbing up the ramp...

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Two Days Later .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Alliance Embassy .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Teviir groaned softly, the fogginess of sleep resisting his attempts to return to consciousness. It was as though, now that he had finally found some sleep, his brain refused to let it go, even though he knew that he didn't have the luxury of being able to sleep as long as he desired.

But he felt so warm! Like he was wrapped in the warmest, softest blanket he'd ever come across. That warmth demanded that he close his eyes and return to sleep, let it ease the stress-knotted muscles throughout his body. A purr built in his throat, a purr so strong it was almost as though it were being echoed by another. But the room he was in, while about the same size as his quarters on the Battlecruiser _Frontline_, wasn't small enough to make an echo possible. Peeling open eyes glued shut by sleep, he blinked blearily up at the ceiling, then towards the alarm clock on the night table to his right.

And found himself on the floor about five seconds later, heartbeat thundering in his ears. There was no going back to sleep now, not now that he'd seen that he had not, in fact, been alone in the bed.

The figure sat up, rubbing at its eyes before turning towards him and blinking striking green eyes. "Are you alright?"

"Why," Teviir began, before stopping, shaking his head once, and blinking at her. Still there. "Why were you in my bed with me? Asleep?"

"You don't remember?" Jasmine asked, tilting her head slightly and gazing at him as he climbed to his feet. "You passed out at the Mess Hall. Carter carried you to your room, but you kept whimpering and thrashing whenever she started to leave. She asked Paulo to get me, and when I got here she asked me to keep an eye on you. After she left, you woke up for a few moments, begged me not to leave, and passed out again."

Teviir blinked slowly, staring at her. "I... Begged you?" He asked, tilting his head. He didn't remember any of this!

"Yeah. You wanted 'something solid.' You're a big baby when you're mostly unconscious." She grinned, her voice playfully needling. Teviir blinked slowly.

"Something... Solid..." He shook his head sharply, then pulled himself to his feet. "What time is it?" He asked, wincing a bit. Only now was he becoming aware of the pain in his right arm, which he'd landed on when he evacuated the bed. He was thankful that he was at least partly dressed in a pair of boxers, though adrenaline had squashed any natural reactions he might have had in his sleep-fluffed haze.

Jasmine stretched, forcing him to avert his eyes or risk a repeat of whatever performance he'd put on in his sleep, then turned towards the clock. "Four nineteen."

"In the afternoon? That's not that bad, only about six hou-"

"AM," Jasmine said, interrupting him with a small smile. "Eighteen hours total, and you still don't look one-hundred percent. Go back to sleep." She shifted, slipping her feet off the side of the bed. "If you don't want me around, I'll head back to-"

"No!" He blinked, shocked himself at the force behind the word. Swallowing thickly, he tried again. "No, I, ah..." He shook his head slowly, trying to clear the cotton that seemed to be wrapped around his thoughts. "I haven't slept that well since..." Since he'd stopped sleeping with his parents at four. "A long time ago. I, ah... Wouldn't mind sleeping that well again." He smiled slightly, then glanced around, walking towards the door "But not right now. Right now, I need to see how close they've gotten, I need to organize our forces, I need-"

He stiffened and stopped mid-stride when he felt her arms go around his waist, gently restraining him. "You need to stop working yourself to death, lay down, and relax for a while. There's nothing you can do right now to do anything better, and keeping on them about everything will just stress everyone out." He heard the smile as she rested her head against his back. "Trust us. Them to make sure you're as ready to fight as possible, and me to make sure you don't keel over and die from exhaustion."

Several thoughts went through his head, many of which he immediately banished. A few he allowed to float around, most regarding how much he enjoyed the contact, and a few thinking up ways to keep her around, so that he could relax into this touch whenever the world was getting to be too much. Smiling to himself, he lightly took her wrists in his hands and parted them, then turned so he was facing her resuming the hug. Slipping his arms around her, he leaned in and gave her nose a light peck. "I would trust you with everything," he murmured softly, chuckling quietly.

She blushed furiously beneath her fur, but returned his smile and pulled him closer. Then she took a quarter-step back, tugging him towards the bed. "C'mon, we can at least nap until the sun is up, right?"

Teviir followed with only an instant's hesitation, his sense of duty still calling him towards the TCC. But she was right, there wasn't much he could do to improve their odds, and all of it could wait. For a while. So he let himself be led to the bed, a purr deep in his throat.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Two Hours Later .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Consciousness returned to him the second time as reluctantly as the first, though this time he wasn't quite as anxious to wake up as he had been the first. He was well aware of the warmth to his right, and of the gentle weight on his arm, the breath brushing his shoulder. Yes, he was aware of all of this, and yes, he loved every last dream-fogged second of it.

But he still had a job to do, and while he might prefer to lay there for several more hours, just breathing and enjoying the warmth of another person, he wasn't going to put it off any more than necessary. Maybe things wouldn't implode without him, but he needed to get himself in a better position to fight if things wound up going to hell. He slowly straightened up, then glanced down at the still-sleeping feline next to him. Smiling a bit to himself, he leaned down, placing a light kiss on her nose-

Just as his door burst open and a certain Somali walked in. "Jaz, I heard you were taking care of spaceman, and-"

And the awkward staring contest began, with Paulo situated just inside the door, Teviir a few scant inches from Jaz, and Jaz slowly blinking herself awake, blushing lightly when she noticed Teviir's proximity, and then even more furiously when she followed his eyes and saw Paulo. "Paulo!" She gasped, sitting upright so quickly Teviir barely got out of the way in time. "It's not what it looks like! Teviir, he-"

"Was ruining our lives not enough for you?" Paulo asked, rage seething in his voice. "Was bringing all of these soldiers and guns to Roseville not enough for you? Was bringing your, your... Your WAR to Roseville not enough for you? You had to try and corrupt Jasmine too, didn't you?"

Teviir blinked, climbing out of the bed with his arms raised, palms towards the other feline. "Look, I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't mean to end up here, and I didn't mean to bring the war here. And I'm not trying to corrupt her!"

"Bullshit! Before you showed up, she would never have, have..." He stuttered, his rage burning brighter. "She'd never have given herself to you!"

The twin exclamations of "What?!" gave him pause, but only for a second. He was in fighting mode, and he came at Teviir with balled fists and intent to maim. He pulled back and swung at Teviir's face, snarling.

The events that came next moved in slow motion for Teviir. The punch Paulo threw took minutes to reach him, bleeding color away the entire time giving him plenty of time to react to a black-and-white image. His own hand came up, pressing the palm against Paulo's wrist and pushing, even as he turned his body away from the turn, putting as much distance between them as possible. Only now did the first notes of Jaz's exclamation at Paulo's motions reach his ears, but already he was moving, converting his turn into a spin, instinct beginning to bring his elbow up and around towards Paulo's skull before he checked the motion. Instead, he almost seemed to crumple, dropping into a deep crouch as Paulo came around for a second shot. His foot shot out, still moving with his spin, and caught the back of Paulo's knees. The Somali's legs were swept out from under him even as Teviir pressed his foot firmly to the floor, halting his turn and bringing his hand down to Paulo's stomach in as gentle a palm-strike as he could manage. Air exploded from the other feline's lungs, and he curled inward around his stomach.

And then time came rushing back, and Teviir was straightening, standing, his heart pounding in his ears, adrenaline scorching his veins. He staggered back, bumping against a dresser to the side of the room. He glanced at Jasmine, and she stared back, into eyes with pupils so large they consumed most of his iris. "Paulo?" Her voice was scared, strained, and it took a moment for him to realize why. She was scared of him. He'd just shown that, whatever his appearance, he wasn't like her, and he'd scared her. He turned, pulling open drawers and yanking out clothing almost at random, then turned and walked to the door.

"He'll be fine," He said just before he left, almost running down the hall.

Five minutes later, he found himself on the roof of the building, pulling on a pair of sweats and a t-shirt. His adrenaline was leeching out of his blood, leaving him shakey and panicky. He had scared her. He'd reacted almost entirely out of instinct, and he'd scared the girl that had been there to comfort him, and he couldn't even explain himself. He couldn't explain how he'd moved so fast, how he'd dropped Paulo without any seeming problem. How was he supposed to explain that he was a designer baby, meant to be the perfect warrior?

How was he supposed to explain that his genes were literally molded in such a way that would turn him into the perfect killing machine?


	8. Chapter 7: Rising Tides

"**Great risk does not always equate to great reward, but great reward necessitates great risk."**

"You need to stop running away."

The voice was low, quiet, and tinged with a exasperation and several notes of quiet anger. Teviir's ears lay flat at the sound, but he remained where he was, gazing out at the construction that was going on all around them. Trenches being dug, landing areas being cleared, anti-orbital installations being sunk into the ground, and to the west, a long stretch of cleared land being covered in a smooth layer of plasticrete. From his place, the feline could see the bunkers being created that would house the anti-armor weaponry, the entrances to deeper bunkers that would be the last holdouts if all other defensive lines failed. He could even feel the digging equipment beneath the building itself, carefully digging down to create a bunker for the civilians. He could see all of this preparation.

And yet, it didn't faze him. He wasn't gripped by grief because of the destruction of natural beauty. No, he'd done similar in simulated locations even more gorgeous than Earth. He wasn't accosted with sadness that interplanetary war was being brought to a previously-untouched planet such as Earth, either. War came eventually to every peoples, they were simply lucky that they had Alliance forces fighting for them. He wasn't even caught in awe, as many were, by the twenty massive tanks that sat on what had been, until recently, a large, concrete parking lot. Now it was a field of concrete pieces broken and ground up by the great weight of the mammoth machines of war.

He was buried, instead, in his own head, where-in he constantly replayed the events in his bedroom, some thirty minutes earlier. Constantly knocked Paulo to the ground, knocked the breath from him. Constantly heard the fear in Jasmine's voice. A fear that was absent when she spoke to him now. "I told him he was lucky you didn't break anything. He didn't mean it, you know."

Teviir kept his gaze on the preparations, which all seemed so solid. "I know," he said, and he did. Paulo was scared, thrown completely out of his safe zone and directly into something that, a few months earlier, he would have watched on a movie screen and criticized. 'How could he try and fight the guy trying to protect them?' He would exclaim, and someone would hush him, and he'd sit there and stew for several minutes before something else caused another outburst. And now, here he was, living what must seem like a nightmare to him, and the one to blame was there, in his underwear, millimeters away from one of his best friends, in a bed, with the lights off.

No, Teviir didn't blame him for the misunderstanding. It definitely looked bad.

"How is he?" He asked, still staring out across the field that might, soon, be a battlefield.

"Aside from a heavily-bruised ego and a bit of soreness?" Jasmine asked, stepping up next to him and gazing at the view, as well. Sadness quickly etched itself into her features, but she didn't say a word about it. "He's fine. And embarrassed. Did you know he can cry?"

"What, mister bad-ass cried?" Teviir asked, glancing at her and smiling a small smile. "My god. If that happened, I should just surrender to the Syndicate, 'cuz the universe isn't far from its end, anyway."

Jasmine rolled her eyes, reaching over to shove lightly at his shoulder. "Yeah, he can cry. There's a lot going on that nobody much likes, and few of us even understand it."

"I know," Teviir's smile faded, and his eyes returned to the view. The preparation. "I don't blame him. It's a lot for him to process, and we're not exactly giving him the time or space to do it."

"Exactly," Jasmine agreed with a nod. "And, by the way, I feel I need to repeat myself. You need to stop running away. It took me way, way too long to find you after I dropped Paulo off with Lucy."

Teviir laughed softly, shaking his head, then leaning sideways and bumping his shoulder against hers. "But you found me, and faster than I expected. I figured you'd be nervous about coming to the roof, since the enemy is coming from the sky."

"Space," Jasmine corrected lightly, turning around and leaning lightly against the railing, looking sideways at him. "And I am. I'm about to jump out of my skin. But I've seen how you walk outside, and how you get on that aircraft, as though there's nothing to fear. As if nothing could possibly hurt you, no matter how much it wanted to. I figured, if I were that confident, and if I wanted to hide from everyone, I'd come up here. Glad to see I was right."

Teviir smiled, pushing off of the railing and turning to walk towards the door. "To be honest, I'm nervous about being up here, myself. The only reason I'm not actually frightened is because I know that the enemy is still a long way away. The fleet won't even leave until next week. Until they leave, the Syndicate won't dare attack. Too much firepower, too concentrated. So I'm safe until then, for certain."

Jasmine nodded, straightening to follow after him. "I know that logically, but on an emotional level, I'm not certain I believe it. It's like expecting the sky to fall down on me."

"On my home planet, several hundred years ago, there was a group of people who constructed an underground city. During one of the last wars in our history, they sealed themselves off entirely, collapsed all but the ventilation shafts into the city and practically vanished. About fifty years ago, they came out of their self-imposed exile, and several of them complained that they felt they were going to fall into the sky if they didn't hold on to something or wear something heavy enough."

"Okay...? What does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, for one, it matches up with what you were talking about, about logic not falling in line with instinct." He paused at the door, holding it open for her, then following her inside. "For another, it's a funny little story about a bunch of cats and dogs that lost almost all color in their fur and have very sensitive eyes. Almost albino, but not quite. And for three, I figure you should know more about my people."

"And why would I need to know more about your people?" Jas asked, her hand slipping sideways to take hold of his, their fingers interlacing. Were it not for the fact that they could potentially die in the next two or three weeks, Teviir might have been ecstatic about this turn of events for hours. As it was, he suppressed the surge of adrenaline, squeezing her hand lightly.

"Because, among other things, you're talking to a member of that people, and you're not. You need to know as much as possible about us, so that you can tell people whether or not we're trustworthy. Important people that hold the fate of your planet in their hands." He paused, his brain spinning off way into the future. With a sharp shake of his head, he brought himself back on track. "'Sides, I wouldn't mind being able to talk about my past with you. Openly."

"Like I'd suddenly start to hate you if I found out about something in your past?" She asked, cocking an eyebrow at him. Then she laughed, shaking her head. "You act like you've committed murder or something. Like you've done something that makes you a horrible person. I don't know you too well, but you don't strike me as the kind of person to take a life lightly, and it weighs on you. I'm willing to trust that you're a good person."

"On my planet," Teviir said, his eyes focused on their progress as they slowly descended from the roof, down towards the residential areas of the building, the ones taking up the upper levels of the building and separated from the roof by a floor devoted to off-world communications. "There is a lot of genetic manipulation. You don't see it much in everyone that came with us, because it's not permitted when you've entered the military. But there's a fad, one that's gaining popularity. It's all about designing your children, giving them certain traits such as a certain fur color, or eye color, or a physical affinity for sports."

"Sounds a bit controlling," Jaz said idly, glancing at him with eyes that clearly expressed her curiosity.

"I've noticed your world has a saying. 'Whatever the civilians have, the military had it ten years earlier.' The saying on our planet is similar, but it's fifty years, not ten. Gene manipulation has been around for almost a hundred and fifty years, if you take into account how long the military has had it. And their most recent attempt at it was creating the supreme warrior. Faster than any Torren, smarter, stronger... They wanted a killing machine."

"How long has this war been going on, to make them stoop so low?" Jasmine asked, frowning.

"A hundred years now," Teviir said, sighing. "You saw how quickly I reacted to Paulo. Anyone else would have... Well, they wouldn't have taken the punch willingly, but they'd have taken it. But... Among other things, when I was conceived, they activated genes that had been dormant since long before your people came out of their caves. I'm not slope-headed or anything, but I've got cavecat genes active. I use more of my brain than anyone alive, my brain filters less of what I experience. My muscles aren't limited as much as most other peoples, which means I can hurt myself just doing something mundane if I'm not careful."

"So..." She stopped on the landing, turning to look at him, though she didn't drop his hand. "You're a supersoldier. Like Master Chief?"

Teviir smiled a bit, nodding. "Give me the armor and I fit that quite well. It's... It's how I got to where I am so quickly. I'm the youngest Cruiser captain in history, not to mention Battlecruiser captain or system defense commander. None of that would be possible if not for all of the genetic modifications."

Jasmine looked at him for several minutes, as if gauging him. Then she nodded, turning to continue descending the stairs. "Sounds about right," She said, tugging at his hand until he started walking, too. "I was surprised when I found out you were a captain. Compared to the Admiral, and that man you were having troubles with in the control room the other day, you're a child. I figured there had to be a reason, but I wasn't expecting supersoldier. Maybe I should start calling you 'John'?"

"Yeah..." He smiled a little, blown away by how she was taking this in stride. "Please don't. My people wouldn't understand, and it'd have to be explained even to a lot of your friends."

"Then it'll be an inside joke, John."

Teviir groaned, shaking his head. "So long as it stays between us, alright?" He turned his best, most pleading gaze on her. She averted her eyes, then started chewing her lip as he cranked up the power a little more.

Finally, she sighed explosively. "Fine! Just between us."

"Thanks... But, if you want to rethink our relationship... I mean, I know you'd be uncomfortable dating some bio-engineered freak."

"First of all, don't call yourself that again or I'll get the newspaper," Jasmine said, halting midway down the stairs and turning to face him. "And second... Dating? Is that what we're doing? I was under the impression that we were just good friends. I mean, you never even asked me out."

Teviir blinked, pausing a few steps down, bringing him face-to-face with her. "I, ah... I didn't, did I?" He managed a smile, his heart going a mile a minute. "I guess I should, shouldn't I?" He shuffled in place, his face heating.

"Wow, your military training really didn't prepare you for this, did it?" Jasmine asked, laughing softly. Teviir chuckled, too, nodding.

"No, no it didn't. Ah... Would you go out with me, Jaz?"

Jasmine gazed at him for a moment, then turned to walk down the stairs, leaving a very confused Teviir behind. She paused on the next landing, looking up at him. "Well, c'mon! You need to escort your girlfriend, you know. And you owe me a real date when all of this is over."

Teviir stood rooted to the spot for several seconds, then grinned and started down the stairs.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Six Hours Later .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

It didn't take long for reality to wear away the glow and temper his happiness with cold reality, but even six hours of touring the construction zones couldn't fully drag the smile off of the feline's face. The fact that Jasmine tagged along the entire time helped, and even the inevitable outcry of 'security risk' was only token at best. The officers had apparently learned that he had his quirks and they weren't going to talk him out of them.

What they hadn't learned was that he hated being led around. Proverbially, anyway.

Six hours of touring gave him one solid fact that stood out from the rest: While Brevet General Carter's confidence remained solid, those under her clearly saw her as the authority and him as a pitiful figurehead, and it showed in how they treated him. Only the soldiers from his old ship even bothered saluting, and they only did it when they noticed none of the other soldiers were. It was true that he'd discouraged saluting in anything short of important official meetings, but nobody else knew that. And it stung when people who'd never given him a chance decided he wasn't worth their respect. So they'd given him the simplified version of just about everything they explained. And the soldiers gave him the kiddy version, as though he didn't know what a twenty millimeter contained-plasma round did when it encountered armor or flesh.

So, after six hours, he got fed up. He faced the sergeant who was giving a repeat performance of every sergeant before him and said, "Stop. Just stop. As in, shut up, stop talking, stop passing air over your vocal cords to create vibrations that we recognize as sound."

The sergeant blinked, his fur beginning to bristle as his anger rose. "With all due respect-" He started, but Teviir cut him off with a sharp look and a quick motion.

"All due respect? I don't think so. All due respect is what you showed to the Admiral while she was in command, and to whatever officer you served under, and whoever gave them orders. What you, and most others, have shown me is the bare minimum of respect. Have you even bothered to ask about my history?" He shook his head, continuing to talk even as the sergeant tried to speak. "Of course you didn't. If any of you knew about my past command, you'd be treating me the same way the soldiers from my last command do. But you don't. None of you do. No, all you see is a child, isn't it?"

"Not exactly making a case for yourself," Jasmine murmured, making him smile slightly.

"No, I'm not. But that's okay. Sergeant, I'd like to tell you something. It was highly classified, but as the current defense commander, I can declassify it. You see, about three years ago, a team of unaugmented soldiers were sent into a Torren military base. Their orders were to plant a Pair-Annihilation Bomb in the middle of a heavily defended space station. They were sent in without suits because it's harder to locate a person's biosignature than it is a suit's power source.

"This team managed to make it inside the station before it was discovered. When it was discovered, the bulk of a three-thousand-man defensive force came crashing down on them, including a group of sixty power-armored troops. The team spread out across four different corridors and opened up on the security forces. They held off the unarmored troops easily enough, but then the armored troops moved in.

"The result was supposed to be a massacre. The team was four squads of six soldiers, a total of twenty-four soldiers. You should know from your many lectures as a private that the estimated kill ratio for an armored soldier against unarmored soldiers is twenty to one. They should have lost two soldiers, if that. If the team detonated the bomb where they were, they would take out a quarter of the station, but it was a quarter that was not critical to the station's overall defense, and a quarter covered by the bulk of their anti-ship weaponry." As he spoke, Jasmine blinked at him, frowning and putting a hand on his arm. This was the first time she'd heard this, but her show of support would fit even if she'd known beforehand. He smiled at her before continuing.

"The actual result WAS a massacre, but..."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Three Years Earlier .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Classified Location .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Torren Space .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Five armored soldiers coming down our path," Ghost two reported, firing a quick burst from her light assault rifle down the hallway. It wouldn't do jack to the armored troops, but it'd keep the unarmored soldiers from making a rush of them.

"Same on our hall," Ghost Four reported, his voice light. "Maybe they're tired of us killing their men."

"Maybe," Ghost One said with a shrug, connecting to the overall command frequency that connected Ghost, Wraith, Shadow and Banshee squads together. "Ghost one to all command elements, we've got a total of fifteen armored troopers bearing down on our position. Ammo is near critical and they're not giving us enough breathing room to move up and scavenge. We're going to drop to knife-fighting pretty ricky tick if something doesn't change."

"We're all getting the same news, Ghost One," Wraith One said, the de facto operations leader. "Your soldiers still have grenades. This is going to go knife-fight one way or another. I say let it. We need to get the package to the drop point soon, or they'll kill us with attrition. Hold on, we're coming to you. Wraith One to all forces, break defense and fall back to Ghost Squad's position. Banshee, your team will hold off of any weapons usage, be it defensive or otherwise. You're in charge of clearing us a path to the hanger once the package is in place. Shadow, you're with Wraith team in holding this location. Ghost, you punch forward and plant the package. Set it for minimum detonation time. Advise us when you get to the location. Move!"

Ghost One winced, switching back to his squad frequency, more to be heard over the gunfire than anything; Their infantry armor didn't cut out sound like power armor did. He regretted not opting to a power armor division, choosing instead to be a space squid, but there was no time for that now. "Ghost Squad, we're to concentrate on breaking out of this and getting to the location with the package. Ghost Four, you're courier. Six, you're on rearguard. Three, behind point. Five, you're middle. Two, behind her. I'll take point."

"Trying for all the glory, One?" Ghost Two asked, laughing. It was a testament to just how fucked up they were that she could laugh in this situation. He himself just felt... focused. He glanced into his hallway, then crossed the four feet that separated him from his companions. They were all gathering up on the central hallway. Pulling up a schematic of the station on the small screen in front of his left eye, held in place by a boom arm on his helmet, he glanced at the area. Four rooms marked in green represented their location, forming a large square connected by three hallways each to a central location, a large circle. A hallway highlighted in red represented the path they had to follow to get the bomb to its target location. It wasn't far, as bomb placement went, especially not for THEIR bomb. The real reason it was being placed where it was was simple. The pair annihilation reactors that powered the station were protected by powerful shields. In order to breach them, the bomb had to put a certain amount of energy into them. And in order to rupture the shielding on the reactors themselves and cause a chain reaction, it had to be in a very specific place. Their target.

"We move on three," Ghost One said, tucking his assault rifle against his shoulder, estimating the armored soldiers' distance based on the steady 'thump, thump' of their approach. Security personnel that had no idea how to maneuver a powered suit in such confined spaces. That made them slow juggernauts. Dangerous, but not as much so as, say, Ghost Five in full armor. That one was quick and precise, and could probably have ended the entire stalemate single-handed if she'd had a suit. Sadly, she did not. "One, two, three!"

They were around the corner and sprinting towards the armored soldiers before they knew what was happening. And unlike the soldiers, Ghost squad's reaction times bordered on precognition. Ghost one ducked down as, almost simultaneously, one of the suits discharged six rounds over his shoulder. Raising his rifle, he squeezed off a three-round burst into the suit's arm, expending his last mag. He discarded the spent rifle, the gun seeming to fall in slow motion to his senses. He reached to his vest, pulling two grenades from their webbing.

Now the suit next to the first was reacting, contained plasma burning holes through the bulkhead, the stream of bullets passing just to Three's left and just under One's left arm. He gritted his teeth, digging the rubberized soles of his boots into the non-slip floor of the station, kicking himself to the right. A quick correction placed his other foot on the rounded corner where floor became wall, and a good push gave him about two feet worth of height. His feet found the first soldier's hips, solid rubber meeting high-density armor. His thumb depressed the button on the back of the grenade in his left hand, stuffing it into the gap between the soldier's leg and hip armor. Kicking off of him, and forcing him against the wall in the process, he activated the second grenade...

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Earth .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Present .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"But it wasn't the massacre the station's defenders were expecting," Teviir finished coldly after a moment, gazing calmly at the Sergeant and giving no indication of what he'd just relived. "Two months after the station was destroyed, the Alliance arrived and secured the sector. Another month after that, I was assigned as commanding officer of my first Cruiser. And today, I stand as your commanding officer." He stepped forward, invading the sergeant's personal bubble and looking him in the eye. "The other option for that operation, Sergeant, was an attack with marines such as you. The initial estimates at the required numbers of soldiers to accomplish the attack and detonate the weapon was around a hundred, and the death toll was estimated to be at ninety-seven percent. That team escaped with a thirty-percent casualty rate, and some went on to do more missions just like that one, and survive." He stepped back, not quite glaring, but gazing at the adult with a look cold enough to make liquid nitrogen seem like a merry bonfire. "So while I honestly don't care if you don't respect me in private, you'd better make damn sure you look like you respect me in public from now on. Because people like me have enough pull with the higher-ups to make people like you go wherever we want. How you, and the rest of the forces I'm in command of, treat me from this moment on decides whether you'll stay under my command, go off to your homeworld militia, or disappear on one of our border planets."

He turned on his heel and stalked away, Jasmine trailing along behind, confusion and worry clear in her features. Evidently, she hadn't expected him to go so far with the sergeant. And there was no way she hadn't noticed that brief pause. Still, she kept quiet about it, and when she spoke, it was about more practical things. "Are you sure it was a good idea to threaten him?"

Teviir laughed softly, his cold facade crumbling away, along with his nervousness. Well, most of his nervousness, anyway; He was still nervous about how she would take his story. "Am I sure? No, I'm not sure. I was only half-serious, anyway. If anyone asks, I'll deny ever saying this, but only the best of our forces were placed in this fleet. I'm the only engineered soldier that I know of, but otherwise, only the veteran infantry squads were placed on this fleet's ships, and only the best crews were assembled for the ships themselves. They didn't respect me because I look like a wet-behind-the-ears squid with shiny new rank. If the rumor mills are still churning at half their usual pace, that story will be spread to every high-ranking soldier by tonight, and every soldier period come tomorrow night. I expect carter will come to tell me how badly I screwed up, but if even a quarter of those soldiers believe the story, it will inspire a bit more respect, which means they'll be more likely to follow my commands if they seem odd."

Jasmine nodded, frowning. "Okay... So, what will you do now?" She blinked, her tail swinging slowly behind her.

"Now?" He thought for several moments, then angled his feet towards the far end of the embassy building, where a 'Kill house' had been sunk into the basement. "Now, I fight the ghosts of the past and get some training for the future."

Two hours later, Teviir leaned heavily against the door frame of the Kill House's entrance. It was his fifth time through, and the soldiers in charge were moving obstacles around and reconfiguring the robotic opponents. He was dressed in a combat uniform not unlike the one he'd worn long, long ago, though this one was run through with wiring that would detect a bullet impact and apply either a sharp pain or a paralytic agent to render the body part useless. So far, he'd only lost his left arm at the elbow once, a few fingers, and gotten a nasty hole in his left leg. He flexed his left hand slowly, working away the last of the deadness from the paralytic, then jacked the bolt on his assault rifle. It was the same as he'd used then, too, a compact weapon firing a rather large round filled with ionized gasses. When the round impacted the skeleton underneath the holographic image of an opponent, it would disable or 'wound' the robot, banishing the hologram and leaving only the robot beneath. The bots weren't perfect, which was why they weren't in use in actual combat, but they were almost as realistic as an actual person.

The light over the door blinked red, and Teviir straightened and stepped back, the door swinging closed before him. An alarm sounded, announcing that the Kill House was online, and then the light turned green.

He breached the way he'd been taught, the way he had four times before this one, and countless times before that. A well-aimed kick to the door, right next to the handle, sent it swinging in and to the right in the room beyond. Nestling the rifle against his shoulder, he strode forward, bringing the weapon up and to his left, clearing the front as he entered, then the left while he had cover to his right from the door, which had rebounded off the wall and swung partially closed. There, a soldier was straightening from behind a table, a handgun flashing. Three bullets burst from Teviir's gun, stitching a neat triangle on the man's chest. He fell backwards, image crackling, but Teviir had already disregarded him. Two more, one with an assault rifle, another with a pistol. Five more shots split the air, and Teviir could almost see the displaced air in their wake as they bridged the distance between himself and the two soldiers. One shot hit the pistol-wielding soldier in the shoulder, spinning him around so that the second round took him just below his canine ear. The third shot went wide, but the fourth and fifth found the rifleman's chest, one punching through to the right lung, the other the heart.

He stepped forward, around the door, and fired two more shots into a fourth soldier, who was just moving to come around the corner. Down he went, and on Teviir went.

The next room was similar to the first, with some desks and chairs and walls for cover. Teviir stalked forward, sweeping the room. Two more shots downed a soldier diving for the cover of a wall, and a third took the helmet off of another who moved to pull the first into cover. The soldier recoiled, scrambling for cover, but another round caught him in the throat, and he went down.

The shot that nicked his right shoulder came from straight ahead, and he emptied the rest of the 20-round magazine in that direction whilst he dove for the nearest cover, a big desk. He ejected his magazine and popped a fresh one in, then jacked a round into the chamber and took a deep breath. The 'bullets' the AI opponents used wasn't physical, but it hurt like a bitch, even a glancing blow like that one. He didn't bother looking at his shoulder, knowing it was free of blood, the same way he knew that the sharp, constant pain was being applied externally, instead of coming from his shoulder itself.

He counted to four, then pushed himself up, sighting over the desk towards where the shot had come from. Movement just to his right tugged his barrel over, and two shots sank into another soldier's head.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Killhouse Control Room .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Jasmine watched Teviir's fifth run with the same incredulity as she'd watched his other four. As much as she'd glimpsed at the seemingly alternate personality when Paulo had tried to deck him, even now she marveled at the complete one-eighty his personality made when he was fighting. Despite his self-assurance, he'd always seemed a little nervous to her. First because of his being the 'new kid,' then nervous about his being an alien blending in on Earth, and most recently regarding his responsibility for all of the soldiers and sailors under his command. But from the moment he had entered the Kill House, he had lost that uncertainty. It was like he knew exactly what needed to be done, and did it with the same precision a brain surgeon might perform an operation. She'd winced every time he was hit, and flinched when he'd taken a virtual 20mm round to his right elbow, which had hung uselessly at his side until he'd left the other side. But even then, when the controller standing beside her said he should be in incredible pain, he hadn't cried out. When he'd lost his arm, he'd just glanced at it, frowned, and slung the rifle he was carrying onto his back and drew his handgun, firing it one-handed.

And that was on the rare occasions he got hit. It was almost as though he could see the future, reacting to things that she didn't see until seconds after he'd already taken care of them. "He's amazing," She murmured, watching.

"Guess the scuttlebutt was true, then," The controller said, watching. He was a big, burly-looking soldier, his fur a clean brown and eyes a dark gray. Like the other Killhouse workers, he wore a bullet-proof vest similar to those used by the Earth's standing forces. "He ain't normal like us. With those reaction times, he could probable take down two or three armored soldiers alone." He grinned at her, tapping out a command on his keyboard. "But we've got a surprise for 'im. If all of the scuttlebutt is true, I'm sure it'll put him out of action. Ah, he's coming up on it now. Watch this,"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Killhouse .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Teviir stepped into the room, the next to last in the kill house, and paused. There were no soldiers in sight, no tripwires waiting to trigger a trap. There was nothing.

Yet.

He took the opportunity to eject his almost-spent mag, slipping it into a webbed pouch on his vest and replacing it with his last full mag. If he were in combat, with a team, he might have had them take up defensive positions while he recharged his magazines, cannibalizing the rounds from other half-spent clips to provide him with one or two full clips. But he was solo, and he couldn't afford to spend that kind of time, not here at the end. He was focused on beating his last time.

Once reloaded, Teviir began striding forward, eyes scanning the surroundings. He was almost to the door when he saw motion to his right, and he pivoted, barrel rising to fire into the figure's head, finger squeezing...

And bullets going wide as he jerked the barrel away, three bullets drilling holes in the wall. Because there in front of him, holding a handgun aimed straight at his heart, was Jaz.

He saw her finger beginning to curl around the trigger, and for a brief, heart-stopping instant his lizard brain told him that she was trying to kill him. Jasmine was actually aiming a gun at him. But then the logical part of his brain reconnected, insisting it was the designer's most recent trap. And what a trap. He knew she was just a robotic hologram, but... He couldn't shoot her. It felt too much like a betrayal, even if it was just a machine.

The decision he made was reached in the brief instant it took for her to pull the trigger. But he was moving again, throwing himself to the side. The bullet bit into his chest, sharp, deep pain stinging through his chest cavity. A through-and-through, missing his heart by bare inches. If he'd hesitated an instant longer, his entire body would be paralyzed. As it stood, it would slowly go numb as he lost blood, until he reached the end of the kill house or he 'bled out.'

But he was still alive, and he could still move. He pushed forward, assault rifle falling to the ground. His hand swept up, knocking aside the hand holding the handgun even as it went off again, the sound so real, even if it was all artificial. He felt the bullet bite into his shoulder, felt the sharp pain, but he didn't need the arm now.

Though the 'bot was artificial, it had a number of 'kill points' that could be hit by a soldier's weapon, which would render it inoperative, just as if it were real. Teviir knew their locations in that he knew where the same points were on the real thing. His right hand came up in a palm strike to her abdomen, the blow bruising his hand as it came in contact with barely-padded steel. His hands and legs were NOT the butt of a gun. Sensors registered the blow and the strength, and the bot began to curl inward around the strike, but he was already moving on, spinning around her, foot finding the back of her knee, dropping her to her knees. He spun into a brief kick, his booted foot finding the back of her head, and she went down, holographic representation flickering, then dying to reveal the robot beneath.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Killhouse Control Room .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The controller glanced at the computer even, in the killhouse, Teviir crouched and picked up his rifle. "Well, well, that was interesting. He hesitated, you saw, but he took the robot down without dying. And... If I'm reading the force readings from the sensors on the robot right, you would have survived. One hell of a headache, and a moderate concussion, not to mention some pretty painful bruising in the abdominal region, but you'd have survived."

"You..." She stared at the screen as Teviir made his way through the last room, one-handed once again. "Your 'surprise' was me. You put me in there as one of the things trying to kill him."

"Not that I thought you would," He said quickly, shaking his head. "The idea was to put something against him so shocking to his system that he wouldn't be able to react in time. Get a win. All we managed to do was slow him down, and that not very much. Look, he just finished the House."

Jasmine spun, glaring angrily at him. "You should have asked! I would never have let you use me to try and 'kill' him!"

"Which is why we didn't ask," The controller said, raising his hands placatingly. "We wanted every edge we could get, and he needed to face every possible challenge. And he did."

"But-" Jasmine started, breaking off when the door to the control room was kicked open. Hearing it through the speakers during his breaches, she had known it was a loud sound. But to hear it now, to know that the door being kicked in wasn't meant to open like that, made her jump a half-foot in the air.

Teviir stalked into the room, his handgun in his right hand, the other fumblingly forcing a clip in and cocking it. Then, without preamble, without comment, he raised the weapon and fired five shots into the controller's chest.

The force of impacts threw him against the control panel, but the bullets didn't penetrate the vest. They did crack a few ribs, though, if his pained expression were anything to go by.

He mastered his anger with a frighteningly visible force of will, stalking slowly forward to gaze at the controller face-to-face. "Don't ever pull anything like that again," He said, his voice flat and emotionless. "Get to the medical bay and get those ribs stitched. And be thankful I used rubber bullets." He stepped back, and the controller nodded, scooting past him then walking out the door, arm wrapped around his ribs.

"Teviir," Jasmine began, her voice trembling just slightly. She stopped when he raised his hand, leaning heavily against the control panel, his breathing long and slow, calming. When he looked up, though, the tears in his eyes suggested the emotion he was suppressing wasn't anger.

"I'm sorry. It feels like I betrayed you..." He shook his head. "I would never hurt you, and yet... I feel like I've done something horrible..."

"You didn't betray me, you protected yourself," Jasmine said softly, the tremble gone for the moment as she stepped forward, wrapping her arms around him and hugging him gently. "And you'll never have a reason to protect yourself from the real me."

His arms went around her, holding her tight against him. And she held him, heedless of the bulky vest that separated them, she pressed against him.

"For a super soldier," He said after several moments, loosening his hold on her and smiling a little, "I'm awfully brittle emotionally."

"We'll fix that eventually," Jaz said with a smile. He nodded, gazing into her eyes. Then he leaned forward.

In the doorway, Paulo watched as they kissed, arms folded. Then, silently, he turned and walked out, tailtip flicking.

(Author's Note: Right, so... Hey. o.o It took me a startlingly long time to get this done. It's about 11 pages according to my office program, and I did about three pages of that over the period of time between my last chapter and when I updated the chapter with my Message from the Author. The rest I ended up hammering out in about 16 hours or so in a roll of inspiration that has left me with a numb brain. So, I apologize again for the long delay in getting this chapter to you, but I'm hopeful that the length will make up for the long delay. Since this is replacing my MftA under this chapter's name, I'll post my e-mail again here. the_lost_cookie Don't hesitate to let me know what you think in a long and in-depth e-mail! And I need a proof-reader or two to help me smooth out the wrinkles in my writing, and to toss ideas at me about how to make their interactions more realistic. If you're interested, send an e-mail titled "Proof Reader" and a few ideas on how I can improve on the interactions in this chapter. So, that's all... Hope you're all enjoying the story so far! ~Lost Cookie)


	9. Chapter 8: Doldrums

dol·drums (dldrmz, dôl-, dl-)

_pl.n._ _(used with a sing. or pl. verb)_

**a.** a belt of light winds or calms along the equator

**b. **The weather conditions characteristic of these regions of the ocean.

**c.** A period of complete or relative calm

"I don't like this," Paulo said, shaking his head and stalking around the room. The group was gathered in the room he'd been assigned, larger than Teviir's but just as sparsely decorated. "We're surrendering the protection of our entire planet to those aliens, with no guarantee that they're not going to take us over after their enemy has weakened us!"

"Why would they do that?" Abby countered coolly, folding his arms. "They got in contact with our governments almost as soon as they arrived. They didn't start deploying all of the weaponry we've seen until after those Syndicate guys showed up. And they're sending their fleet away tomorrow to engage their fleet. It looks pretty simple to me that these people, the 'Alliance,' is a good race, and that the Syndicate are the bullies that need to be torn into a million pieces and-"

"What he means," Daisy interrupted, touching his forearm to quiet his angry words, "Is that the Alliance has given us many reasons to trust them, and very few to distrust them." She looked up at Paulo, frowning a little. "Why don't you trust them?"

"Because Jasmine's close to Teviir," Lucy said before anyone could answer, sitting cross-legged on Paulo's bed with her elbow on her knee and her hand against her cheek. "And he still feels close to her."

Her words brought the Somali up short, caught mid-step as his mind contemplated her words. Then he sighed, nodding a little. "She's a good girl," He said after a few moments, looking straight at her. "And I don't trust him. He already lied to us, several times. Why should we believe that he's telling the truth, now that this story fits so well with what would make him, and everyone in his fleet, heroes?"

"You don't have to trust him," Lucy said, straightening a bit and folding her arms. "But Jasmine IS a good person. If you don't trust him, try trusting her. Her heart's in the right place, and she's been around him a lot longer than any of us. And she hasn't tried to knock his lights out, either. That probably helps him trust her."

"Wait," David sat up, blinking several times. "Tried? What do you mean, tried? Why did you try? Did you knock him out?"

"No," Lucy answered for Paulo, rolling her eyes. "He didn't knock him out. He walked into Teviir's room yesterday morning without knocking, and he saw Teviir pulling back from kissing Jasmine's nose while she was asleep. He jumped to conclusions and tried to punch Teviir, and got knocked on his back for his troubles." She gazed at Paulo with calm blue eyes, as if daring him to object. "I heard it from Jasmine before she went off to find Teviir. Seems like he was more freaked out about what happened that Paulo was."

"Seriously?" Mike asked from his place at the foot of the bed, glancing up at Paulo. "Wow. I'm not sure what to think..."

"Maybe that he's a freak?" Paulo suggested, seizing upon an opportunity. "He was reacting to me almost as soon as I decided what I was going to do. Normal people can't react that fast."

"Not normal Earth people," Tess said lightly, laying on her stomach just above Mike, her tail swaying in slow, lazy motions. "But who knows what's normal to them? And if he was really that fast, he could have done more than knock you down and knock the air out of you. He could have really hurt you, but instead he ran away like he'd done something wrong by defending himself." She paused, noting Paulo's look. "I saw Jasmine in the halls while she was looking for him." She shrugged, then continued. "Look, I don't know about you guys, but I talked to him a lot. I've met a lot of bad people, people who would do exactly what you're saying he will. Hell, I was one of those people for a while. But he doesn't seem that way to me."

"I think so, too," Sandy said from her place at Mike's side, leaning lightly against him. "When he and Maishul picked me up, he was very nice. He looked like he cared. I haven't met him since, but I don't think he's a bad guy."

"Neither do I," Mike said, causing Paulo to roll his eyes. "I'm not just agreeing with her, either. He and his pilot broke a lot of rules to get her here, rules that could have turned the government against him, and still might, if they really want to cause him problems. They had to fake a mechanical failure to land in the field. He went out of his way, and jeopardized his relationship with our government, in order to help me and Sandy. And not just us, either. He's done the same thing for everyone in this room that had family outside Roseville, like Tess and her dad, and my dad."

"Like Daisy said," Abby said after a moment, "There's a lot of reason to trust him, and not much reason not to. And like Lucy said, you don't have to trust him to trust Jasmine, and we all know Jasmine wouldn't willingly do anything to hurt us."

"She's also young and easily deceived," Paulo said, his ear twitching as the door opened. "How do we know everything we're hearing is the truth, even if she thinks it is?"

"Because I know Teviir better than you do," Came the voice of the very girl they were talking about. Every head turned her way, and Paulo's expression went from surprise to shame to anger, and back to shame again. She stood in the doorway, hand on the knob, limbs stiff with anger as she glared daggers at Paulo. Daggers with small tears on the blades. "I've seen him when he's trying to be strong for someone else, I've seen him when he's scared or worried, and I've seen him fight. He's good at a lot of things, but lying isn't one of them. He almost broke down yesterday because someone tricked him and he felt like he'd betrayed me. Someone like that wouldn't lie without a very, very good reason. And he wouldn't lie to me."

And without another word, she turned and walked out of the room. There was silence for several moments, then Tess and Lucy climbed off of the bed, following after her. Mike and Daisy shared a look, then Daisy got up and followed after, too, with a concerned Sandy following close behind. Paulo watched them all go, then leaned back against the wall, sliding down to sit. "Shit."

"You could say that again," Mike said, watching Paulo for several seconds before standing. He took a step forward and patted Paulo's shoulder, smiling a little. "Look, I understand why you don't trust him. But... Honestly, it doesn't look like we have much choice right now. They would stay here and fight no matter what we said, and even if they did leave when we asked, what would the alternative be? If what Teviir has told us about the Torren Syndicate is true, they would either kill us all or enslave us. At least the Alliance gives us the chance of remaining neutral, of picking sides."

"It's just..." Paulo shook his head, then leaned forward, his hands sliding across his face and into his hair. "It's... It's too much, man. I finally get Lucy, then the whole world goes to hell and one of the only things we talk about is aliens!"

Mike was silent for a few minutes, then said, "That's where we're at right now. That's just what the world wants to talk about. Give it time, things will go back to almost normal."

"I'm not sure what normal is anymore," Paulo murmured, sighing.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Three Hours Later .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Underground Civilian Bunker .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Sir," General Carter said as she approached, pausing long enough to salute before stepping up to him. They were in the mess hall of the bunker, just him, Carter, and a half-dozen engineers, and to be honest he was rather thankful. The rumor mill was still grinding away at peak performance, and his little story had spread around rather quickly, as well as the rumors of his being even more than that, the unsung warrior that had taken down dozens of Torren targets throughout almost eighteen years of his life. That had made for a few odd looks, several worshipful gazes, and no end of whispering at his presence.

So, he'd come down here for some relative peace, counting on the Engineers' preoccupation with building a bunker underground, without the benefit of a crane or any other open-sky resource, to keep him anonymous. And it was working. He hadn't felt the prickle on his neck that warned him of someone's gaze since he'd come down here, and the conversation he'd overheard so far was all about how to inject the plasticrete for the barrier's outer casing without the benefit of an open sky to help with the setting.

"At ease, General," He said with a small smile, looking at her for the first time without her suit. In military terms, she was gorgeous, almost as tall as he was and built like a soldier, with defined muscles beneath a thin, glossy layer of calico fur. So thin from extended time in armor, in fact, that some soldiers felt self-conscious enough to wear clothing, instead of trusting their fur to hide everything. For one reason or another, Carter hadn't gone to that extreme yet, and Teviir found it quite the struggle, indeed, to keep his eyes on her own, stormy gray gaze. "I only outrank you on paper. No need for the formalities."

She slid into the seat opposite him, leaning her elbows against the table. "Technically, sir, I only have this rank on paper. At our old ranks, you still outrank me."

Teviir laughed, nodding slightly. "And I never made you salute me then, either. Please?"

She smiled and nodded, shifting a bit in her seat to get more comfortable. "Alright, Commander. I'll only salute you in important situations, then. I heard that you snapped at one of my sergeants?"

Teviir nodded, averting his eyes for several moments before forcing them back to her. It didn't set a good example for a commander to be unable to live with simply dressing-down someone under their command. "I got tired of being given the baby version of everything. So I told him something that would force him to give me some respect. It... Hasn't quite settled out, yet, though."

"Thus, you're hiding out in the civilian bunker, under the guise of checking to make sure things are advancing at a reasonable pace." She waved a hand, cutting off his objection. "You're hiding, and you know it. I know it, too, and a few of the officers in the command meeting this morning know it. But not all of them, and probably very few of the enlisted. Your rather blatant relationship with one of the local population works in your favor this time."

"That 'member of the local population' has a name, General," He said, a note of warning in his voice. His expression became mildly confused when she laughed, a full-bodied belly laugh that made it even harder to keep his eyes on hers. When she calmed, he cocked an eyebrow. "Have I said something to amuse you, Carter?"

"Sarah," She corrected, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. "And I meant no disrespect, Teviir. I just meant that that's how they're viewed right now. The indigenous population, a group of people who may or may not want our help, and a group of people who are remarkably similar to the Alliance's most populous species. In fact, I've had a lab on the _Frontline_ running through their genetic code, just fact-checking what you discovered during your period alone. You were right, they're practically identical to us. The only variations stem from the usual climactic situations and the differences that are common amonst those of the same species but different families."

Teviir nodded, sighing softly. "Yeah, I know. And it should be impossible. The odds of finding a race similar to our own are so slim you'd need an electron microscope to see it. But not only have we found such a race, we've found one that's reasonably advanced, with a fledgling space program and everything."

"We could interbreed, if we wanted," Sarah agreed, nodding and breathing a long sigh. "Which is disconcerting, to be honest. We made peace with not being alone in space a long time ago, but we always thought we'd be the only ones of our particular race. To find a race so similar to us that they may as well be the same species is..."

"The scientists back home will piss themselves," Teviir agreed, fingers drumming on the table. "They'll probably be finding out in another month that this place exists. I wonder how the Alliance Council will react?"

"We know what their cookie-cutter response will be," the marine said, her voice taking the tone that he'd come to associate with someone quoting the council. "'Pending the results of the diplomatic negotiations still ongoing with the planetary leaders, the planet is hereby declared an extension of Alliance space, and is to be protected with all forces currently available.' They'll build a station, maybe terraform the other planet, the one just inside the Faraday zone, the fourth one? Probably sink a base into the moon while they're at it. Set up a shipyard somewhere in the system and start pumping out freighters and mining barges to take advantage of the asteroid belt."

"The usual exploitation ideal," Teviir agreed with a long sigh, his head falling to his hands. "And of course, I'll be the figurehead for all this exploitation, since I'm the commander of the current protective force."

"Maybe not," Sarah said with a shrug, looking around the mess hall. "They can't afford to sideline someone as valuable as you in something like a peacekeeping post. You'll probably be transferred out, along with the _Frontline_, and see combat all up and down the front."

"Don't say that," Teviir groaned, closing his eyes and shaking his head.

"Don't tell me that time with the locals has made you soft." Sarah smiled, her tone making it clear it was a joke.

Teviir sighed and looked up at her, his tail curling slowly behind him. "If that's what you want to call it, then yes, I have gone soft. I have something I want to hold on to, something more important to me than simply carrying out my orders. There's no way I could go back to the bloody hand-to-hand I saw before I got my own ship."

"Unless she was in danger," Sarah said, raising a single finger. "I know how it feels to have someone you'd do anything for. If Jasmine were in trouble, you'd fight harder than you ever did before coming here, and it would take a lot more to kill you. Honestly, I wouldn't want to be a Torren facing you with her life on the line."

"Let's make sure it never comes to that, huh?" Sarah nodded, and Teviir paused for a moment, just breathing. "So, how are the canopy shield projectors coming along?" And their conversation turned to matters of protection and war.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Five Hours Later .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Communications Center .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Yes, madam president," Teviir said, nodding to the canine on the screen, a tall woman with wolf-like features, complete with gray fur, brown eyes and pointed ears. "I understand that your concern must be with the United States as a whole. All I ask is that you keep an eye on the tactical situation around our fortifications, and harass the Syndicate if possible to keep them from simply drawing the noose around our neck. We'll do our best to be the bull's eye for them, but there may be some spillage. Just keep an eye open. Commander Nusakan, out." The moment the screen went black, he slumped down in his chair, sighing softly.

He felt wrung-out and emotionally drained, and it didn't help that he only had more of the same to look forward to. He had to talk to the leaders of Russia, China, and the UK before the end of the week, and if the talks with them went anything like the talks with the US President, he'd be hard-pressed to get even half of them to sign up with the Alliance. They all had issues with each-other, except perhaps the US and the UK, and they would try to negotiate for the best position up until the very moment the Syndicate landed. Which was frustrating enough on its own, but add to it the fact that anyone who didn't sign on with the Alliance would likely move to attack those neighbors who HAD signed up and were weakened with their defensive forces in America, AND the American president's hesitance to allow any foreign military inside her nation's borders... It was a clusterfuck in the waiting.

Pushing himself to his feet, he strode quietly out of the comm room, setting his feet to walk through the hallways at random while his brain worked on the problems he faced. He could just threaten to destroy any non-Alliance forces that attacked Alliance member nations again, and indeed planned on doing just that during negotiations, but that was no guarantee that they wouldn't attack anyway. And if there was no guarantee of protection, then no nation would sign on, and the US and Alliance forces would be alone against the current assault, as well as any future attack on the planet.

Which was how he managed to completely miss the person approaching until it was almost too late. He looked up just in time to note white fur and blue eyes, and then they collided, his arms automatically going around the person's waist as he stepped back, widening his stance to keep both of them on their feet. "Sorry!" He gasped,leaning back slightly so he could look at the person without being intimately close. "I was lost in my own head. You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm good," Lucy said, wincing lightly. He loosened his hold on her waist, then released her when she didn't wobble, taking a full step back. "Fancy meeting you here," She said, folding her arms and gazing at him coolly. "Why aren't you with Jasmine?"

"I saw her this morning, during a command meeting, but she said that she'd heard the group was meeting up and wanted to talk to Paulo about something, then left. I haven't seen her since."

"So that's what happened," She said with a frown, then shrugged. "Guess that explains it. You should find her. Paulo managed to get her upset."

"Who hasn't he upset lately?" Teviir asked, shaking his head. "I'll look around for her, but... I've been meaning to ask. Ever since I first showed up, you've looked really... Down. Like somebody waylaid your self-confidence. At first I figured it was nothing, just a mood, but... Well, I'm no good at relationships, but I'm not blind."

Lucy blinked at him, then sighed. "Can you talk and walk at the same time?" She asked after several moments, looking up at him.

"I could chew gum, too," Teviir said with a smile, motioning for her to follow along as he started walking, the smaller feline falling into step beside him.

Half an hour later, they were still searching for Jasmine, but Teviir knew a lot more about Lucy's past than he had before. What had started as a brief overview of why she'd been down had become an emotional flood, and she'd ended up telling him everything from her first meeting with Mike to the current day, albeit a compressed version. Including that her family had been planning to send her away after the play, and had only assented to letting her finish off the semester reluctantly. "If all of this hadn't come up, I'd have left a few days ago," She said, sighing softly.

Teviir snorted softly as a thought flashed through his mind, and when she turned an angry gaze on him, he said, "Sorry, just... Turns out, it took interplanetary war to keep you around for longer. I'd hate to see what it takes to keep you around for good."

"She thought about that for a moment, then managed a small smile. "Some world-ending disease?" She offered, making Teviir laugh out loud.

"Gods, I hope not. I'd rather meet the ghosts of a long-dead race than deal with a disease. At least I can reason with a ghost."

"And they can't hurt you if they don't like you," Lucy agreed, her smile widening a little more. "Thanks, Teviir. I didn't think it would, but talking about it helped, some." She paused, looking away, then turned a harsh frown on him. If he hadn't seen the glitter of amusement in her eyes, he could have sworn that she'd done an emotional flip. "But this is just between us. If I find out you told anyone, I'll beat you to a pulp."

"Alright, alright, don't worry," He laughed, raising his hands palm-out, signaling his surrender. "Your secret is safe with me. Just keep your chin up, hmm? You're not alone. Paulo really cares about you, even I can see that. And if you ever need to talk again..."

"I know who to call," Lucy agreed, nodding. "I'm going to go back to Paulo, make sure he's not planning on ambushing you or something." She turned down the next hallway, heading back towards Paulo's room.

Teviir watched her go for a moment, then sighed and shook his head. "Poor girl," He murmured, before setting off to find the most important girl in his life.


End file.
